A Knock in the Dead of Night
by FanofKOTLCandTF
Summary: Avery is an average home schooler who is in love with Transformers. Just like every other Transformers fan, she always dreamed of meeting the Autobots. But, something happens to her and makes her wonder: why does the government take a great interest in her? This is mixture of many genres. I stink at summaries, but the story is good I promise. The rating may change to T.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys! Sorry about the long wait. A Knock in the Dead of Night has been going through a major reediting process. So, I would like to thank my beta readers, Bee4ever and a friend who doesn't have an account on here. Thank you for making this a better story and for the support! And thank you everyone for liking and following this story! :D**

 **Also, this story can only be found on FF. Why am I saying this? Well, I was recently informed that there is a mirror site called Talkfiction. There isn't a single thing, user, stories, and forum who has not been mirrored. There are ads so be very careful.**

 **I highly suggest you add that your story can only be found on FF. And don't log in. They could steal your real account do do who knows what with it!**

 **I hope you all like the new version of this story! :D**

 **This is FanofKOTLCandTF signing of.**

* * *

Something wakes me up from my weird dream of Legolas, Digimon, _Alice in Wonderland_ , and something about Autobots. I sit up. I look around in a daze. What did Alice do this time?

My eyes adjust to the light. I realized that I'm not in Wonderland, but in my boring room with moonlight shining in.

Okay, since I'm not dreaming, then what, the heck woke me up? I see that my cat was staring at me with a very disapproving look next to me. It must've been the cat. I fall back onto my bed, much to my cat's delight. Her dirty look seems like it can bore right through me.

Then, comes a knock from down stairs. It's very loud. It is abnormally loud, actually. So, that is probably what woke me up. A very loud knock. Hm… I shrug and close my eyes.

Hardly anything wakes me up; unless someone, as in myself, hits my head against the wall…wait…nope, I would still be asleep. Anyway, the knock was loud. I bolt back up and rub the sleep from my eyes.

Definitely _not_ a dream. What idiots would knock at—I looked at my clock. It was midnight! Actually two minutes past midnight, but, still! Who, in the name of Primus, would make a house call in the middle of the night? Also, what would be so important? That is just rude, inconsiderate, and…well…rude. Some people need their sleep you know. Especially after a long day of work, like my parents, and they work all day. Whoever knocked better have a dang good reason for doing so. I do not like being woken up for no reason.

I have to admit I'm exhausted too, both mentally and physically. I did my schoolwork all day. My mom, who is also my teacher, assigned my siblings and I, a paper to write on how Alaska, the state where we live, is different from all the other places we've seen and live in.

I like Alaska, but it wasn't as warm as the other places where I used to live. So, I spent the whole entire day writing the paper.

I look over to my nightstand. There is my small pile of papers illuminated by the light. I scowl at them. The cause of my exhaustion. I just do not like to write papers. I don't really see the point in writing essays. I love to write stories _not_ papers.

I kick the covers off my legs, walk down the familiar hallway, sneak my way down the stairs and to the front door. My mom and dad are already there and are talking to two men in black. For some odd reason, there is fear in my parents' eyes.

 _Are we being robbed?_ Is the first thing that comes to mind. Okay, that doesn't really make any sense. The two men would've already been ransacking the house instead of talking with my parents. And seriously, what kind of a robber would knock on the door? A very stupid one who doesn't know the first thing about stealing.

I study the men. They look like the people from the movie Men in Black. Minus the shades. I mean who would wear shades in the dark? Wouldn't it be hard to see anything?

Okay. Now I'm getting off topic.

"And that is why we're here, Mr. and Mrs. Halverson," one of the men says.

So, I made it just in time to hear the end of the conversation? Great.

My dad nods. "Okay, Agent Shelton." My dad looked at the man with dark brown eyes and a nose that looks like a beak of a crow. He looks to be about thirty something or another, his black hair is neat and makes him look like an ominous raven.

"Mom, Dad," I said, "what's going on?" I ask.

My mom jumps. She doesn't scare easily. Something going on. And it isn't good.

"Nothing, Sweetie," my mom says, "go back to bed."

"If it's nothing, then why did two guys knock on our door at 12:02 in the morning, no less?" I ask crossing my arms, "And why did you answer? You wouldn't have answered the knock unless it was important."

"Avery, what are you doing up this late at night?" my dad looks almost angry that I was down here.

"I can ask you two the same question."

"Go to bed."

"But—"

"Don't argue, young lady," My dad says with authority in his voice.

"I don't think I'll be able to sleep now, Daddy." I look at him with a slight frown.

One of the men walks past my dad and kneel in front of me.

"You're a smart little girl," The black haired man, Agent Shelton says with a snarky tone.

"I'm actually a smart, little thirteen-year-old girl, Sir," I correct him.

"What's your name?" The other man, Agent Steinbeck, asks. Unlike his companion, the man had disheveled, sandy blonde hair and green eyes. He looks like a rock star and maybe a little older than twenty.

"Avery, Sir," I reply. Why are they here? What do they want? Why are my parents acting this way?

"Sir," the black haired man addresses my Dad, "it's time."

 _Time?_ I ask myself. _Time for what? Oh, did he mean tea time?_ An image of the Mad Hatter from the live action movie _Alice in Wonderland_ pops up in my head.

I mentally face palm myself. _I've got to stop thinking about that movie for about five seconds!_

My dad nods sadly. "Avery, pack some of your belongings."

I nod and quietly sneak back upstairs and into my room. I pack my hunter green and orchid duffle bag with some clothes, my nice combat boots, PJs, a homemade owl-shaped travel pillow, a leopard print blanket, my favorite teddy bear, my favorite Transformers; Bumblebee from Prime Beast Hunters, Jazz from G1, and Optimus from the movies; my peanut butter jar filled with money, my computer, its charger. I make sure to pack my flute and its music. I don't think that those were the bare necessities, but I think that it'll do.

I pack a pink backpack too. There are my drawing pad and pencils. I also pack my three favorite books, earbuds, headphones, an iPod, and its charger, and a dagger with its scabbard.

I make sure to slip my computer into my thick blanket to make sure it won't somehow be damaged.

I put on a plain black t-shirt, a pair of jeans that flares out a bit at the end, and my favorite combat boots. They have traction, unlike my nice ones. I grab a black hat that says Albuquerque in hot pink letters, even though I've never been within one hundred miles of New Mexico. Dad always said to bring a hat with me on trips; I think that this would apply to this too. I also grab my sleek black sunglasses. The lenses are shiny and shimmer to blue then to aqua green. I grab a pull over, purple and hot pink Under Armour™ jacket, with one pocket in the front, which I pull on.

I run down the stairs in confusion. My bags are upstairs. I think it would be best to wait until we're ready to go, then I'll grab my bags. The two men are talking to my parents.

I don't pay any attention to the conversation.

"Avery, come here," the man with the blonde hair said kindly.

I walk toward him.

He looks me straight in the eye. "You're going to come with us."

I look at my parents and then at the two men. "Why?"

"Avery," my dad says, "about thirteen years ago, we were in a car wreck, only one died, and that was our baby girl. A few days later, two men came and asked us to take care of you, until you were thirteen." I can clearly hear the chocking in my dad's voice.

I bite the inside of my lip. I don't like the thought that enters my mind. "Is my real name Avery, or was that the name of your real daughter?"

"Your real name is Avery," My mom, or at least I thought she was my mom, said.

"Then…who are my real parents?"

"We don't know."

At least I don't have to hear about the people who abandoned me. That would be been worse.

I can see the sadness in my parents' eyes. I am disappointed that my parents lied to me. I'm so mad at my parents. They told me that they wouldn't lie to me. Everything in my life is officially falling apart. Well at least I knew why I don't look a thing like my parents. My mom has dirty blonde curly hair, and hazel eyes. My dad also has blonde hair and a darker shade of hazel. I, on the other hand, have red slightly wavy hair (thanks to the humidity and sleeping in my wet hair) and blue eyes with a very light tinge of sea green.

The men stand up. I hug my parents. "I love you."

"We love you too," they reply.

I turned around to get my duffle bag and backpack from my room, but Agent Steinbeck is already at the bottom of the staircase, with my bags.

"Thank you."

Agent Steinbeck smiles at me. "No, problem."

He places a hand on my shoulder. It's reassuring. He leads me to the door.

Agent Steinbeck looks at me with sympathy, while Agent Shelton looks annoyed. I shoot him a death glare. What is wrong with showing your love to your parents?

I can feel the tears in my eyes. I blink trying to hold them back, as the agents lead me to the door. One tear slips down my face. Agent Steinbeck wraps an arm around my shoulder. I lean into his touch. He leads me to a black GMC suburban and helps me in. I buckle up and get out Teddy, my teddy bear.

I look behind me. I saw Agent Steinbeck place my duffle bag in the back.

The car starts. As Agent Shelton drive out of the driveway, I turn around and see my parents…for the last time. I wave in goodbye, and they wave back.

"Parting is such sweet sorrow," I say aloud, quoting Anne from _Anne of Green Gables_. My lips quiver and my voice cracks slightly.

I mess around with her bow. I stare at her. I bite my lip when I feel tears coming on. I'm going to cry, not in front of them.

I get out my iPod and turned on some music. I decide to listen to "Rolling Girl" sung by a famous singer in Japan named Hatsune Miku. It was translated and sung in English. The song really fits me. 'A rolling girl, who's always far away. In her dream world she longs to stay. So much noise buzzin' 'round inside her head. All the worries never end. All the worries never end!'

I stare out the window and look at the things that go by. Tall pine trees look like the giant menacing Decepticons in the misty moonlight. Dark houses that are filled with sleeping families seem to make fun of me. Just because I lost everything. My family, my siblings.

I try to find my favorite constellation, Orion, to get my mind off of the fact that I am a car with two strange men. I look for the three stars that make up his belt. I can't find him because of the trees.

 _Stupid, trees, always getting in the way of stargazing._

"So," Agent Steinbeck starts after thirty minutes, "how are you?"

I shrug. "I don't know? How would you feel if you just found out that your parents weren't actually your parents at all? Then, you're taken away by two men black and you're heading to who knows where?"

"Good answer."

I sigh and continue looking out the window. Another house passes by.

 _I'm never going to see my family again._ I think to myself, _Wait, I am going to see them again, right? Of course you are, Avery. They would never keep you away from your parents._

"Where are you taking me?" I ask.

Agent Steinbeck smiles. "You'll see."

Not the answer I want. What can I do about it though?

* * *

 **So what do you think? Do you like it? Do you think it is worse? Let me know in the comments!**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The whole world seems to be a blur of nothing but trees, and the occasional lights from houses. I stopped looking outside an hour ago. I not even paying attention when we drive up to an airplane hangar. My mind is a little preoccupied with the blaring music and keeping my mind off my parents.

Agent Shelton shakes my shoulder. I look up and see that we are in an airplane hangar. I unbuckle, and get out of the car. I see a small private jet, and a woman wearing an outfit that screams that she is an agent. She is wearing a white blouse, black necktie, black jacket, and a black knee length tight skirt standing in front of the jet, along with a man in Military uniform.

The woman gives me a forced smile. The look in her eyes seems to be telling me that she doesn't like me one bit and that she wasn't happy to meet me. I want to move away from her. "Hello, Avery," she says in a tight voice, "I'm Agent Hillary Lovelady. And this," she gestures to her companion, "is Captain William Lennox."

"Pleasure to meet you both," I say. _Captain William Lennox…_ I think to myself _…that sounds familiar. Where have I heard that name?_

I mentally shrug. _It'll come to me eventually._

Captain Lennox has dark brown hair, and piercing blue eyes. I guess him to be in his late twenties to early thirties. He looks to be a very strict man.

Agent Lovelady has black hair that was greying in places, pinned into a tight bun. The bun seems to be a little bit too tight. Her eyes appear to be bigger than their normal size. She has green eyes, and a heart shaped face. Her appearance gave me the impression that she is about forty.

Captain Lennox eyes Teddy. I clutch her tighter. Agent Steinbeck places a hand on my shoulder. I am starting to like Agent Steinbeck more and more. He seems to be a nice young man.

Captain Lennox kneels in front of me. "Don't worry. I don't bite."

I look at the Captain. He actually seems to be strict on the outside, but now staring into his eyes, he isn't all that strict on the inside. He seems to be a compassionate and kind man. He is probably strict because of the military training.

"Ever been in a jet before?" Agent Lovelady asks.

I shake my head.

"You'll have fun," Agent Steinbeck says, "don't worry." The poor agent is carrying my possibly heavy bags.

I once again thank him for doing so.

I walk to the jet. Thinking about what Agent Steinbeck said, I realize that I shouldn't be worried. Why should I? I mean, looking down on the world a couple thousand feet from the ground, that sounds like a way to feel…free. I stare at the flying machine, wondering when we were going to take off.

"Load up," Captain Lennox must have read my mind or something.

I run in the jet shouting , "Shotgun!"

Agent Steinbeck follows me with an amused smile, Captain Lennox has the same expression. Agent Lovelady rolls her eyes. Agent Shelton has a dark scowl.

Captain Lennox gave me a forced stern look. Amusement seeps through his eyes. "I don't think so, kid."

"Shoot." I look down to the ground, snap my fingers and stomp my foot. I really like this guy. I mean, he is much better that Agent Shelton. I just don't like grumpy guys.

The jet looks surprisingly homey. There are light tan leather seats facing each other. Two of the seats look out into two of the small windows that line the interior. A glass coffee table was in front of the chairs, the table has an assortment of magazines. _Teen Vogue_ and a few other magazines meant for teenagers. There is a kitchen too.

I never had an interest in those types of things. I skim one of the magazines. Some of the articles has stuff about boys, how to get their attention, all that kind of stuff. A door on one side of the room leads toward the nose.

I run to a chair that had a window. "I call this spot!" I practically jump into it and land on to the seat with a plop. Agent Shelton and Lovelady look at me, as if I just committed the worst crime in the universe, having… _fun_! *dun, dun, dun*.

Agent Steinbeck places my bags at my feet with a smile.

"Thanks."

I shrink into my chair, hoping that there was a secret compartment under it or that the chair can somehow come alive and will start to swallow me whole. Sadly, neither are true.

I grab my blanket and wrap it around my body. I reach into my bag and grab my travel pillow and my Transformers. I lay my owl on the chair and bury my face into Teddy's head. I place my Transformers in my lap.

Agent Lovelady and Agent Shelton walk through the door that lead to another part of the jet.

The engine turns on. I jump. I eye the Captain and Agent Steinbeck. Both of them are snickering. At first, and the jet drives out of the hangar, out into the runway. Before the plane takes off, it bobs ten times. My hands are clutching the arms of my chair so hard that my knuckles are white. I am going to die. I am going to die. When the jet finally takes off, and soon into the sky there was a bit of turbulence. I have a great view of the blackness below. I look at the clock on my iPod. It reads 5:45 a.m. The sun probably won't rise for a few hours.

"Watching the ground is fun." I have to add sarcasm into my tone. "It's completely black. The lights of a house had passes below us. "Wait never mind."

I look at Captain Lennox. "Where are we going?"

He takes a glance at my Transformers. "Somewhere," is the only answer that I got out of the stubborn Captain. Having all questions and absolutely no answers of any kind is getting extremely annoying.

I then notice a small gleam of merriment and pleasure of a young boy in his eyes. He walks over to the small kitchen and busies himself with something over there.

I look out into the world below. There is an occasional ray of lights from houses. A few minutes later, we fly over a city. I bang my head against the cold smooth glass. My whole entire world was turned upside down in a stupid night.

 _In a single night!_ I think to myself. I emphasize each thought with a bang on the glass. I read about things like this happening in books; but who knew that it could happen in reality?

I laugh mentally.

 _What am I doing? My family has been ripped away._

 _No they won't. I'll see my family again. I know it._

To punish myself for thinking that thought, I bang my head _harder_ than before. I feel my eyes go wide as pain shoots through my forehead.

"Ow," I whisper. I place my hand over my head.

Captain Lennox looks over to me. "Are you okay?"

I nod. "Yeah, just banged my head too hard against the window."

"Why did you do that?" Captain Lennox asks.

I turn to the window. "My. World. Has. Been. Turned. Up. Side. Down." I say once again, banging my head against the window with each syllable. I get angrier as I did. My forehead starts to throb.

"Note to self. Never, hit my head when I may already have a goose egg growing on my head," I say, rubbing my goose egg.

I look over to the Captain. He's filling a plastic bag with ice cubes. I hear the sound of ice clinking against each other. He seals the bag and walks over to me. He kneel in front of me and asks me where I hit my head.

I remove my hand.

Captain Lennox cringes. He moves my reddish hair out of my face and places the bag on my bruise. "You must be one tough girl, Avery."

"Why do you say that?"

"Most girls I know would be crying over that."

I shrug. "My dad told me that I was tough toddler. He told me that I tried to step on my kitten, Peanut, when I was on a couch. I toppled headfirst off the couch and went back to watching _Dora the Explorer_. Also, does it look _that_ bad?"

Captain Lennox smiles. "Maybe." There's amusement in his voice.

I frown. What is it with these people and not giving direct answers? Is a simple 'yes' and 'no' too much to ask. "Ha ha," I force some merriment through my gritted teeth.

Captain Lennox stands up and removes his hand from the bag.

I lean back into the chair.

I look out the window. I snuggle into the seat and clutch my bear tighter. I see that my Transformers shift slightly to my movement. I smile at them. I always have this strange feeling that they are alive. Sometimes, I thought I saw one of them move a smidge once, but it my cat was nuzzling my dresser with her strong neck. I notice that my eyes are getting heavy.

I yawn.

Sleep is something I need. I whisper a good night to my Transformers. I lull myself to sleep by thinking of a lullaby and keeping my mind off my parents by thinking of living in a world where Transformers are real.

What a silly thought, right?


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

I feel someone shake me. "Avery, wake up."

I jump up, therefore, sending my Transformers somersaulting to the floor. "What?! Decepticons?!"

Captain Lennox is laughing. "No, there are no Decepticons."

I feel the blood rise to my face. "Sorry. I was having a dream about Transformers."

"Let me guess." Agent Shelton crosses his arms. walking up behind Captain Lennox, "big Transformer fan?"

I nod my head rapidly. "Yes, Sir!" I bend down to pick up my Transformers. I gently place them in my bag along with my blanket, pillow, and Teddy. I look for the bag of ice that had been on my goose egg. I couldn't find it. I shrug and finish putting everything in my bag.

Agent Shelton and Captain Lennox share a look.

"Is everything okay?" I ask the two government workers.

They nod. I can tell that they aren't being honest with me.

They led me out of the jet, into another hanger, and into another black GMC suburban. I hop into the back and buckle up.

I'm, thankfully, completely awake and ready for anything…I hope. I leaned into the seat as the car took off. The car drives out of the hanger and into open road. The ride is a little bit bumpier than the plane. I stare at the blue sky and the forest filled with pine trees. The trees had lichen and moss hanging from their branches. I can't tell where we are, considering that a lot of states have pine tree forests with lichen and moss hanging off of their branches, such as Washington and parts of New York. It makes me wonder where I am. Canada? Idaho? Wait? Am I still in North America? What I can tell is that we aren't in my home state, Alaska; it's too warm.

Agents Lovelady and Steinbeck are on either side of me, while Captain Lennox and Agent Shelton are in the front.

"Are you going to tell me where we're going now?" I asked Captain Lennox.

Captain Lennox chuckles. "No. If you keep asking me I won't give you the answer."

I nod. I lean toward Agent Shelton, "Are _you_ , Agent Shelton, going to tell me?"

"That would be a negative," Agent Shelton replies.

I smirk. The mischief part of me is telling me, _Annoy Agent Shelton_ , but the logical part of me is shouting _No don't do it!_ I ignored the logical part, because logic is absolutely no fun. Well, not all the time. I cocked my head. "Will you tell me now, Agent Shelton?"

"No," Agent Shelton replies through gritted teeth.

"How about now?" I ask. I am enjoying annoying Agent Shelton.

"If you don't shut up," He turns to me. What he threatened after is a little too crude for my taste, and I will not, under any circumstances, repeat it on paper, by word of mouth, or by anyway of communication.

I sit back into the chair a little taken aback and mad at myself, "I'm sorry." _Darn you mischief!_

Agent Lovelady doesn't seem to be pleased with Agent Shelton either. "Agent Shelton, there is a young listener in the car. You do not say anything like that in her presence."

I get out one of my books. I had already read it eight times, but it gets better every time. I don't care what other people think about this small piece of information.

"What are you reading, Avery?" Captain Lennox asks me after ten minutes of silence.

" _Keeper of the Lost Cities_ by Shannon Messenger," I replied.

"Is it good?"

I nod, "I read it seven—no, wait—eight times, Sir. Each time I read, it gets better."

Another five minutes passes. I look up from my book and out into the forest. Captain Lennox turns onto a road that is somewhat hidden. We drive on into the woods thirty minutes more.

"Are we going to Disney Land?" I ask in sarcasm.

"No," Captain Lennox says.

"Middle Earth? Casablanca? Emerald City?" I ask rapidly.

Captain Lennox laughs. "No. Where have you heard of Casablanca and Emerald City?"

I smile. "I've seen the _Wizard of Oz_ and the movie _Casablanca_. The planet Krypton?"

"No. You can probably stop guessing, you're not even close," Agent Shelton says. I thought I caught a hint of amusement in his voice.

I cross my arms. "Drat."

When I get bored I have to do something and annoying someone is the first thing that comes to mind. I also wanted to get my mind off the whole entire situation. Being in a teasing mood is one of my favorite moods.

We stop at a clearing in the woods. I unbuckle and step out of the car. I grab my backpack and sling it over my shoulders. I walk to the back of the suburban to grab my duffle bag, but Agent Steinbeck already got it for me. "Thanks."

Agent Steinbeck shrugged. "That's one of the reasons why I'm here. I'm the bell boy here."

I looked around and grabbed the straps of my bag. The sun is shining through the bright white clouds; there were a few wild irises, honeysuckles, and daisies in the field.

I run to a tree and start to climb it, just as Agents Lovelady and Steinbeck got out of the car. After twenty minutes of climbing, and tripping a few times before I am about thirty feet off the ground. Also, my backpack caught on the branches ten times. I need to get far away from the Agents as I possibly can. The best way to do it is probably climbing a tree, and pretending as if this is normal. Which it is.

"AVERY!" Agent Shelton shouts up to me. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

"Getting chased by Captain Hook!" I shout back. I did not want to find out what he might say if I said, "getting as far away from _you_ as I possibly can". Therefore, I said the first thing that came to mind.

"Get back down here!" Agent Shelton shouts.

I shake my head. "Nope!"

"You're going to hurt yourself!"

"Aww! Agent Shelton cares."

Agent Steinbeck grabs a hold of Agent Shelton's arm and shook his head.

I continued to climb up. I found a really nice crook where I could sit down and draw. I sat down on the crook and got myself in a comfortable position. I stared out into the clearing. I slid my backpack from my back so I could get my pad and pencils. I started to draw the flowers and the snowy mountains almost hidden by the trees at a ground level, instead of what I can see from my position. I decided to add Agent Steinbeck in the picture to give it a little more action.

I drew the agent's head at a profile view and his body at slightly different angle. Getting his hair right is a little difficult. His hair seemed to be almost everywhere! But it turned out exactly as I wanted it. Whoa. I could not do that. Did she work on it for a while? Just recently, I started to draw Manga Shoujo style, because I never could get the realistic style of drawing. I do a fair job at manga, in my opinion.

Agent Steinbeck is leaning against the black Suburban. He is obviously bored and impatient about something. I makes me wonder what though. He keeps eyeing the watch on his left wrist and looking into the forest. Agent Shelton and Agent Lovelady are chatting about something in hushed tones. Captain Lennox is talking to someone over the phone. Maybe his superior? A family member?

I stare at the picture from an arm's distance. I look for something to fix. I push the thought away. It looks perfect to me and that's all I care about.

I get out some pens to ink in my picture. When I was done with that, I look for my coloring pencils, which aren't in there.

"Dag nab it," I swear under my breath. "At least I remembered my pens."

I'm not going to keep this. I decide to give this to Agent Steinbeck since he is both in the picture and because he is so nice to me.

Something shiny catches my eye. I squint towards the shine, but it's too far to make out clearly.

I pack my drawing stuff. I sling my backpack over my shoulders. The branch dangerously jumps to my sudden movement. I grab on to the branch, in fear of falling. The branch stops its jumping. I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding.

I look to my right. My mind starts to wander away from this beautiful landscape. It unwillingly goes to the family that raised me. I shake my head. I'm not going to think about this. "Land ho! Neverland off the port bow!" I start to pretend to get my mind off my misfortune.

Agent Steinbeck looks up at me with a smile.

"Ahoy there, Peter Pan!" I shout down to Agent Steinbeck. "Have you seen a certain codfish lately?" I ask. _Peter Pan_ has always been one of my favorite Disney movies. Neverland…a place where anything that you dream can come true.

"A codfish?" Agent Shelton asks me.

Hasn't Agent Shelton ever seen _Peter Pan_ , with Peter Pan and the Lost Boys? I shriek. "There he is now! Quickly call the Lost Boys!" I stop something _BIG_ is missing. "Wait, where's the _Jolly Roger_? Where's Mr. Smee?!"

Captain Lennox gets off his phone. He looks up at me.

"Thewhothewhatnow?" Agent Shelton asks. Confusion is very clear in his voice, showing that he actually never heard of _Peter Pan_.

I do a face palm. Agent Shelton has to be the most pathetic human I've ever met.

I then turn to the west and decide to play a different game. "Lord Megatron, I have found the Autobot base. Commander Starscream is in the vicinity."

I look down to see the adults. I saw Agent Steinbeck and Captain Lennox cast worried glances to Agent Shelton and Agent Lovelady. I cock my head at them. _Why are they acting like this?_

I continue my game pretending that I'm a Decepticon, but the minute Megatron's back is turned…I reveal the Con's plan to the Autobots and, hopefully, get the extreme pleasure of kicking Megatron's tailpipe back to Cybertron and make sure that he stays there.

"Commander Starscream, I have located the Autobot base. I see two Autobot scum guarding the base," I say, leaning over to the west. "Permission to blow it up?" I say talking into my imaginary com link. I pause for a moment.

In my mind, Starscream responds, _"No. Maintain your position, sparkling."_

My eyes widen at the remark. "Hey! That was not called for, Dumbo!" Dumbo is the name I call Starscream.

" _Don't call me 'Dumbo', Dustkicker."_

I scowled at Starscream's insolence. Dustkicker is a derogatory word among flyers for those who cannot fly. "I hope you realize that I don't give a flying frag about what you say, Half-clocked Microchip Moron!"

" _That is no way to speak to your commanding officer, bit-brain!"_

I roll my eyes. Screamer certainly is half-clocked.

The tree starts to shake; it is like how I imagine the ground would be like if a giant was running. I turn to the east. What I saw makes my heart stop. It is a black, tall, angry transformer, who looked just like Iron Hide, shouting, " _ **TRAITIOR**_!"

I'm in for it now.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

I force down a scream and climb down as quickly as I can. It is easier than climbing up. It only takes about five minutes. Iron Hide is looking around for me. I look around to assess the situation.

"There you are." Iron Hide reaches out to grab me and most likely squeeze the living breath out of me. I run. Fear and adrenaline keep me going deeper into the forest. I run behind a tree trunk. I try to catch my breath. I look behind the trunk right. Nothing is there. I turn to the other side and see a hand. I run away from that silver robotic hand. I take a right. After twenty yards, I take a left.

I breathe heavily. A lot of confusion runs through me. _How on Earth is that thing possible?_ I turn around and look at the black and silver, red eyed Autobot.

Iron Hide picks up his pace. I plan a sporadic path. I am choosing every direction by random.

I take a seventy-degree angled right after thirty yards. Ten yards, a twenty-degree right. Thirty feet, I take a sharp right.

My back pack isn't being much of a trouble. Thank goodness that I don't have any heavy science or history textbooks.

The next thing I do is another right. Iron Hide starts to take a left. His head turns to me when he realizes that I turned right.

He runs into a tree. "Ouch."

The tone he used was funny. I can't exactly describe the tone he used but it is funny. I laugh, and keep running.

 _How? How is this possible? How is Iron Hide real? He's a character from the movies! He shouldn't be real!_

Iron Hide recovers from his run in with a tree. He shakes his head and follows me.

One would think that Iron Hide would have caught up with me by now. But I have the advantage. I'm smaller and I can navigate and maneuver myself, much more easily, than the giant walking tin can.

"YOU COME HERE YOU LITTLE PATHETIC LUMP OF FLESH!" I hear Iron Hide shout at me. His voice is close. Dangerously close. I keep running around one tree and another. Fear runs through my body. I do not want to become an Autobot's target practice, Not today, not tomorrow, and definitely not next year.

"No thank you!" I shout at the Bot.

I am so mad at both myself and the crazy Decepticon hating Iron Hide.

I lose Iron Hide. I slow down and catch my breath.

 _Breath in and out._

 _In…out…and repeat._

I look up at the tall pine tree behind me. I climb up the tree. My legs aren't burning like I think that they should be.

My backpack gets caught on a few branches. But it's nothing that can't be handled. I keep climbing up. A branch juts out from another tree. I climb over to the branch.

Climbing over gently is a bit of a task. I barely made it over to the other branch. The one that I was climbing on breaks and falls to the ground.

 _That could have been me_. I laugh nervously. I continue climbing over to the trunk of the tree. The branch makes a cracking noise. I freeze. _Uh-oh_.

The branch cracks a little bit more. _This isn't good._

The tree limb splits from the trunk. The next thing I know, I'm free falling. I grab a hold of the branch five feet below me.

I think my arms are going to shoot right out of their sockets. I bite my tongue to keep myself from screaming.

This is going to be a little bit difficult. I swing my left hand in front of my right hand, as if I'm on a monkey bar. Only this "monkey bar" is a tree branch and not as stable. The pink backpack was making the way to the trunk a little difficult. The bark on the branch was rough and very, _very_ sticky in some places. I remember being pine trees in a back yard at a house that I used to live in. I got sap on my hands whenever I touched the tree. It took forever to get the sap off my hands, soap and water didn't do the trick, but a lot of scrubbing did. This is probably that sap.

I grimace at the sap. "Uhg." This is going to take forever to get off. And it's on my favorite combat boots.

"Great," I mumble to myself. "Just great."

I keep moving to the rough trunk. I am moving to closer to the trunk. When I think I'm close enough, I pull myself up and swing my legs over the branch. I hug the trunk.

I will have less of a chance of being found if I hug the tree trunk.

I'm _so_ going to die. I tighten my grip on the trunk.

"Come out, come out, where ever you are, you little Con," Iron Hide says in sickeningly mock sweetness.

I hear the sound of me clanking against metal.

"I want you to meet my guns. I don't think you've been properly introduced."

Oh great…not his cannons!

The tone makes me want to gag. Which, I do, although very quietly, and that is very difficult to do.

My breath comes in short and ragged gasps. I look down; the tree is covered in dangerously slick moss, making climbing down impossible. I try to shimmy up, but I end up almost breaking my neck. It was only an inch but it felt like I fell down about a thousand yards!

"So this is how it ends, huh?" I ask into the forest. The insane part tells me to start banging my head against the tree with each word. I do. "One. Of. Your. Favorite. Transformers. Will. Kill. You. All. Because. Of. Your. Big. Fat. Stupid. Mouth!" I rub my head with my hand, "So have to stop hitting my head." I look at the tree trunk and shrug. I hit my head against the tree again.

The voices of Captain Lennox and Agent Steinbeck drift through the jolting bionic steps that send shivers through the slick trunk I cling to. They are calling my name.

"OVER HERE!" I shout to them.

"Avery?!" Captain Lennox shouts up to me.

I wave and quickly bring my hand around the trunk again. I'm somewhat happy to see them, but how will I get down? I hope that there are other Autobots in the area.

It would be cool if there were other Autobots. They could probably keep Iron Hide from killing an innocent human and therefore, keep Iron Hide from getting in trouble with his superior, Optimus Prime.

Speaking of which, where is Iron Hide? I look left and right to find him, but he's nowhere in sight.

I exhale. _Well that's good._

"Avery, can you climb down?" Agent Steinbeck asks.

"Yeah, I can climb down…if you want me to _DIE_!" I reply. Don't tell me that they can't see the slippery moss.

"Avery, don't worry. Help is on the way. Don't move."

I nod. "Okay!" I shout to them. "I'm not going anywhere anytime soon," I mumble under my breath.

I hear running below me. I sigh.

After a few minutes, I hear a sweet, gentle masculine voice behind me. "Avery, is it?"

I nod. "Yep."

"Okay. Let go with one hand, and reach behind you," The voice says kindly.

"Why? I'll probably fall." The branch that I'm on is the only one in my reach, and it's not that big either.

Against my will, I start to do as the mysterious voice says but I slip down ward an inch or two. To me it feels like twenty feet. I am usually okay with heights, but something about this is making me very uncomfortable. I'm very close to having my very first episode of hyperventilating! My hand goes back around the trunk. I shake my head. "Nuh uh! I am _not_ moving from this spot! Please don't make me."

"Please try," The voice says in a pleading tone.

I can't resist the tone. It sounds like the person really wants to help.

I try again. I reach behind me with my left hand. I feel something broad and metal behind me. It's a little warm and it's smooth. I grab it. I let go with my other hand, but keep my legs around the trunk. I close my eyes tightly. I grab the air with my right hand until I find the metal object my other hand is clinging to. The whole time I am thinking _I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. If the voice is a dream…well, there is not much I can do about that._

I unwind my legs from the tree. The metal object I am clinging to moves away from the tree. Something solid is under my feet. I make my hands release their tight grip on the metal object. I fall to my hands and knees. "Remind me, never make an Autobot think that I'm a Decepticon." I fall to my stomach. "If you don't mind I'm gonna stay here for a few…thousand years."

The voice laughs. I then realize that I'm not on solid ground, but on something that is completely different. I am on a grey thing that looks like a hand. I look up from the hand, and see something that makes me want to jump up and down and scream in delight. But I am too shocked to do anything.

I know that color scheme anywhere.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"Who are you?" I ask my savior. I already know who it is but I just have to be sure. Who knows if it is some other Autobot.

"You're odd. Most fans would already know who I am by my color scheme," the black and yellow mech replies with a cocky smile. I stare into his turquoise optics, searching for any sign of hostile intentions. All I see is sweetness, concern, kindness, recognition, and some sort of unidentifiable emotion.

His eyes are deep, like a lake. And that emotion is a fish wanting to come up but it can't out of fear.

Why I am looking for hostility is something I do _not_ know. I mean, come on, it's Bumblebee! The lovable butt kicking Scout! Who _likes_ humans! Unlike Iron Hide!

There is something about him that looks familiar. It isn't because I saw him on Transformers, but because I have the strangest feeling that I saw him in real life before.

"Bumblebee, who are you talking to?" I hear another masculine voice say.

Bumblebee turns around. I see a white and blue mech with an opaque blue visor over his optics. I'm pretty much on the verge of going fangirl, "Oh. My. Primus! JAZZ! YOU'RE ALIVE!" I get up onto my feet and jump up and down in happiness. "HE'S ALIVE! HE'S ALIVE! He's actually alive, Bumblebee! Those stupid movie writers and producers lied!"

"WHERE IS SHE?! WHERE IS THAT DECEPTICON?!"

I turn to the left and see Iron Hide burst through the tall trees. I shriek. I feel more confident knowing that there are two Autobots on my side. "There's the landlubber who knock me off me poop deck!" I say quoting Adventure from the movie _The Pagemaster_.

Bee and Jazz snicker. They probably like my pirate accent, or they think it was funny when I said 'poop deck'.

Iron Hide looks at me. His cannons are aimed at me. "Landlubber?"

"Yeah, you know…" I say, "someone who isn't used to the movement of a boat."

The three are still giving me weird or blank looks. I throw my hands up and slap my legs as I bring them down.. I turn to Jazz. "You're actually alive. I can't believe it. I mean you're standing in front of me, yet I still don't believe it. I am actually somewhat disappointed, though."

Jazz backs away a few steps and his mouth drops in horrified shock. "Why?"

I shrug. "I had one more good reason to beat the tar out of Megatwit!" I say, punching my hand.

I can't contain my inner fangirl any longer. I start to jump up and down, squealing and laughing hysterically. "I'm actually with the Autobots!" I start to do a happy dance. I'm amazed at how steady Bee is holding his hand as I dance.

" _This_ is the _Decepticon_ you were chasing?" Jazz asks.

He looks at me doing my little happy dance and singing, "I did it! I did it! Oh, yeah, yeah yeah! No eatin' here tonight! Whooo! Eatin' here tonight!" I turn to the crazy-weapon-loving Autobot He likes crazy weapons? At first I wasn't sure if you had written that correctly., "No, no, no eatin' here tonight! You're on a diet! We—" I stop singing my celebrating Dori song and look around as if someone interrupts my song, "Dori, what did it say?" I change my voice into a higher pitch. "P. Sherman, 42 Wally way, Sydney." I gasp, "IremeberedwhatitsaidIussuallydon'trememberthingsbutIremeberedthattime! P. Sherman—" My voice goes to a lower pitch. "Wait, wait, where is that?" I once again change my voice to my Dori voice. "I don't know. But who cares? Haha, I remembered!"

"SHUT UP!" Iron Hide shouts at me.

I scream and fall into Bee's hand. I continue my impersonation of Dori. "P. Sherman 42 Wally way, Sydney, I remembered it again!"

"She seems to be an extremely dangerous Decepticon femme," Bee rolls his helm and eyes.

Iron Hide lunges for me. Bee uses his big form

Bee's other servo clamps over his other hand. I duck down low to avoid getting his by the metal hand. I fall down in a sitting position, because I bent my knees so much. It's so dark. I fall over sideways from a strong force.

My head collides with Bee's bottom servo.

I bring myself up and rub my eyes to get rid of the colorful dots dancing in my vision. Rubbing doesn't help.

"Ow. How many times have I hit my head now?" I try to count how many times…let me see I was in the jet, then the tree trunk and now. Um…at least ten, twenty, times? I lost count.

"Okay, okay, okay. I think I've had enough of one of my favorite Autobots trying to kill me," I say.

Bee removes his top servo. Light fills my eyes. I squint in the bright sunlight.

"Are you all right?" Bee asks.

I chuckle foolishly. "He he. Just bumped my head against your servo. Nothing too big."

I touch the area where I hit my head. I barely touched it but a sharp spear of pain erupted. "Ow!" I scowl at myself.

Worry appears in Bee's optics. "Are you okay?"

"You already asked me that, silly," I say light heartedly.

Jazz has a hold of Iron Hide and pulls him away from me.

"AVERY!"

I look down and see two forms. The _two lives of the party_ : Agent Shelton and Agent Lovelady.

"Avery," Agent Lovelady starts, "of all—"

"The stupidest," Agent Shelton interrupts, "idiotic, low down things you could've said, that was one of them!"

I glare down at him and place my hands on my hips. "Well, maybe we could've avoided this situation, if you just told me that we were going to go meet the Autobots and that one of them was a Decepticon-killing machine!" I yell at the narrow-minded agent.

"The little lady does have a point," Jazz says grunting with effort at keeping the thrashing black mech away from me. I smile at Jazz. I like him. Not that I didn't like him before, but...you know what I mean. Jazz is just amazing!

"Iron Hide!" Jazz yells. "If you don't stop now, I'm going to knock you out and leave you here for scrap metal!"

Captain Lennox and Agent Steinbeck come blundering and stumbling like drunken men out of the forest. from somewhere in the forest to the east, panting like dogs and red as beets. It's actually so funny that I can't help laughing. "Where have you two been?"

"Looking for the Bee and Jazz," Agent Steinbeck replies in between breaths.

I want to get down and ask them an important question. I turn around to face Bee. "Bee, would it be okay if I get down?"

"Of course it is," Bee replies.

Bee lowers me onto the ground. I hop off. "Thanks, Bee." I run to the captain and Agent Steinbeck. "Captain Lennox, I've been meaning to ask you…but…when will I be able to see my family again?"

Captain Lennox looks me in the eyes. There is a kind of sorrow and pity in them. I don't know what those negative emotions are for until I realize something. I mentally shake my head. _They are going to let me see my family,_ I tell myself. _They have to._

Captain Lennox sighs heavily. He gently takes my hands into his. They're calloused, and cold against my warm hands. Just one of his hands can easily envelope both of mine. But his touch is comforting. For a moment I think that I'm back home, and everything is normal, and that he is Dad but…he's not.

My hands start to shake, and my heart rate picks up as the long seconds tick by. His hands slightly tighten soothingly, making my pacing heart slow and my hands stop shaking.

"Avery, you won't be able to see your family anymore."

I laugh in amusement. I don't believe a word he said. "That's a good one, Sir. But seriously, when?"

The look on his face says the word that falls across his lips, "Never."

I slowly back away. My hands slip out of his hands. My steady heart rate picks up and my hands are shaking worse than ever.

That word, that one simple word, feels like a slap to the face and to my heart. My head is spinning; the whole world is. I can't see my family ever again? Everything is crumbling like old buildings in front of my eyes. I shake my head stubbornly. I am not going to believe him. I AM _NOT_! But there is a small part of me that is saying, _Don't fight reality. He's telling you the truth. You knew this was coming_.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Tears blur my vision. "No," I shout angrily. I ball my hands into fists. I snatch the Captain's shirt. Captain Lennox seizes my wrists. He gently tries to pry my hands away. I thrash like a mad man to get my hands out of his iron grasp. "NO! Let me go! You have to take me back right now! You _have_ to!" My voice cracks. I stop my attempts of getting my hands free. "Y-you have to." Tears stream down my cheeks and onto the wet grass. I don't want to cry.

My knees are shaking very badly and they feel like a bowl of Jell-O. I've never been like this before. I tell my knees to stay up. But they don't listen to my orders. I collapse to the ground.

I can't stop shaking. I decide that I am not going to give the drawing of Agent Steinbeck to Agent Steinbeck like I plan.

But his outburst changes my mind.

"I thought you said that she could see her family again!" Agent Steinbeck's cold hard glare is very unlike him.

"We knew you wouldn't cooperate and that you would tell Avery the minute you had the chance," Agent Shelton says, as if taking me from my family, turning my world upside down, introducing me to cartoon characters, therefore traumatizing me is unimportant.

 _How cold can Agent Shelton possibly get?_

I can't keep the tears in any longer. Captain Lennox places a hand on my shoulder. I shrug his hand off. I don't want his sympathy. He is one of the people who dragged me away from my family. I get up and run to Bee. I hug his pede as if it is the only thing that is keeping my world from falling into darkness. I sob into his armor. Everything is so confusing. I have a feeling that Bee will help me; he already did. I can tell that Bee is unsure of what to do, but I don't care. I just need something to hold onto.

"Avery?" I hear Bee say.

I look up from his pede. His optics are full of pity, but they don't lose their, sweetness, kindness, and that unknown emotion. It's that same emotion that disappeared when Bee helped me out of the tree. Why do emotions have to be so confusing? "Do you want to live with the Autobots?" Bee asks.

I hit my head on Bee's pede, making a hollow thud sound. "Excuse me?"

Bee kneels down, as does Jazz. "How would you like it, if the Autobots' home becomes your home, little lady?" Jazz asks me.

I feel my eyes go wide and my jaw drop. That question is actually a really big shock to me. The Autobots as my family would be amazing. My mouth moves up and down but no words come out. I am able to recover from my shock. "Is this a joke?" I say between sobs. "'Cause my cousin can tell better jokes than that."

Jazz shakes his head. "No joke. So what do you say?"

"You're serious?!" I ask. I notice that my voice is a higher pitch than it usually was.

Jazz laughs. "I can't tell if you're very happy about this or not."

Happy is a bit of an understatement. I am on the verge of eruption. "Are you kidding me? I would _love_ it!"

I look behind Jazz. There is something behind him. I let go of Bee's pede and run to the object. My eyes widen. I bend down and pick up the object tenderly. I chuckle. "How long have you been there, you silly little ninja?" The object is a familiar purple, faceless, Soundwave, from Prime. "How did you get out anyway?" I then realize that I didn't bring him with me. "How did you get _here_ in the first place?"

"What do you have there?" Iron Hide asks. I can hear the suspicion in his voice.

What? _Does he think that I have a bomb or a Decepticon surveillance system for the base?_

I don't answer. Who knows what he'll do if I tell him that I have a Decepticon. I turn Soundwave over, taking a closer look at him. I bring him to my nose to see if he is mine. I sniff him. He's mine all right. He smells like a banana split.

A few months ago, my sister thought it would be funny to dunk the poor Con in a banana split scented perfume bottle. I was grateful that the solution didn't harm the plastic toy, but he has a strong scent of the perfume. No matter what I did the scent wouldn't go away. But…I'm not sure if I was glad that my sister did it or not.

"How in the universe did you get here?" I ask Soundwave. One insane part of me is telling me, _He followed you! He must've gotten in the bag and fell out._

But the other part of me, the stupid logical part says, _You idiot, toys can't walk and talk. He must've fallen out._

The insane part argues. _We didn't put him in the bag and Soundwave was on the other side of the room. Look who's the idiot now._

Me _?_ Asks Logic.I'm _the idiot? I don't think that I'm the one that thinks that Transformers are alive._

 _Well, seeming that the Transformers are right behind us I think that I won._

Logic is about to say something but I immediately cut Logic off. "Shut the heck up you two!" I shout.

"We didn't say anything," Jazz says in a worried tone.

I turn to him. "Sorry, there was a small argument between Logic and Insanity in my head."

I turn back to Soundwave. I look up in front of me and see another Transformer toy. I hold Soundwave and walk to the other Transformer. It's Sunstreaker from G1. "What are _you_ doing here, you little prankster?" I asked.

I'm a little disappointed that I don't find Starscream. But the only Cons that I like are Soundwave, because he's so cool, and Starscream. I just love seeing him pitifully beg for mercy and grovel in front of Megatron. I think it's hilarious. Maybe that's why so many people like him…he's a stupid Con who'll do anything to win Megatron's favor.

Approximately four feet away, I see Sunstreaker's twin, Sideswipe, also from G1. I run to him and pick him up. I turn him over in my hand. This is getting weirder and weirder. Why am I finding my Transformers all over the place?

I shake my head. "This is really weird. First Soundwave, now Sunstreaker? Who's next. Screamy?" I laugh at that. "Okay, if I find Screamy I will most like likely go crazy."

I spot my Predacon. he is red and turquoise blue. If my memory serves me correctly, his name is Blight.

I sigh and run to him. I turn to the confused Autobots and government workers. "I keep finding my Transformer action figures," I explain.

I just get weird looks from everyone.

 _What? Is my explanation not good enough for you?_

A thought occurs to me. I take my duffle bag and bring it to the green grass. I reach in looking for my Bumblebee. When I find him, I scream.

"Avery, what's wrong?" Jazz asks.

"BEE LOST HIS ARM!" I scream. I stare at the place where Bee's right appendage is supposed to be. I frantically rummage through my bag. "Jazz, did you take it?" I ask my G1 Jazz action figure, who is probably hiding from my wrath.

"WHAT?! NO!" The real Jazz replies.

"You know that Bee's arm comes off easily, you little Bot you," I say grabbing the culprit. I don't know why, but Jazz actually has a hold of Bee's arm. I stare at him. I take the missing limb away from Jazz and, as tenderly and gently as I can, replace Bee's missing limb.

I set Bee on my lap, along with Jazz and the Cons.

"There you go, Bee," I say to the action figure.

"Thank you," I hear a voice say.

"You are most certainly welcome, Bumblebee." I freeze. I stare at my action figure. "Bumblebee, did you just talk?" I ask him in a high voice.

The action figure nods. "I did, DJ."

I smile when Bee uses my nickname. My full name is Avery Delilah Jillian, but most people call me DJ, Avery, or Jill. But, I prefer Avery and DJ.

Bee stands up, as does Jazz and the rest of my Transformers.

I scoff. "Since when did you guys talk?"

Sideswipe puts on a thoughtful look. "Let me think…today is Wednesday, the fourteenth of some month or another so…always."

"And you didn't tell me?"

"It's against protocol, Avery," Optimus Prime says. "In section nine, paragraph seventeen, sentences thirty-five through forty, it states that 'Any Transformer, of any faction, may never reveal that they have a personality, emotions, or that an individual is alive. The one exception is, if the owner knows the Autobots or Decepticons personally, you may reveal yourself to the human."

I know Optimus Prime is talking but the words he is saying are a jumble. "I know that you're saying something, but I don't know what you're saying. I'm sorry."

The toys laugh.

"That's our Avery!" Jazz laughs.

Okay, first the full size Autobots are real, now my action figures talk?! This day just keeps getting better and better. This is too good to be true!


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

I take out Optimus from my duffle bag.

I look at Soundwave. "Why are you the only Con here, Soundwave?""

I know Soundwave won't reply, but I have to ask the question anyway.

"You treat me like an equal," Soundwave replies.

"I never realized that you can talk. And…you're not here to spy on the Autobots, are you?" I know Soundwave better than any of the other Decepticons; he's a master spy, a great hacker, and is on top of surveillance for the Cons. So, considering that he's a Con and a spy, he would tell the Cons where the Autobot's hideout is.

Soundwave shakes his head. "No. Why would I? I didn't even realize that you were going to meet the Autobots.""

I shrug. "Good point. But in answer to your question, because you're a Con, and Cons hate Bots, and you're a master hacker, spy, and surveillance officer.""

"I understand your reasoning, DJ," Soundwave says solemnly. "But, I assure you, I'm not going to spy on the Autobots."

I eye him. _What the scrap metal? Did Soundwave seriously just say that? He wasn't going to spy on the Autobots? That is…that's just…that's just not normal. It's certainly unusual for Soundwave…I think._ "Do you promise?""

I promise."

"Avery," G1Jazz says to me, "I did not take off Bee's arm. It fell off. I was going to get it and give it to Bee."

"Oh. Sorry, Jazz.""

G1 Jazz shrugs.

"Hey, guys," I say to the Minis, "would you mind going into my duffle bag so that it would be easier to go to the base?"

The twins, Jazz, and Blight protest, saying that they are not going to ride with a Decepticon, Decepticreep, Con, Con Scum, blah, blah, blah, blah, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Somewhere in there, one of them said something about not wanting to be in a dark place. I guessed it was Blight. Bee, Soundwave and Optimus are silent.

I take the Minis off my lap, ignoring the protests of the twins, Blight and Jazz.

I fix my blanket so it will be flat and the Minis can sit or lie down comfortably in my duffle bag.

I turn to the Minis. "Anyone who doesn't want to go in my bag can stay here in this forest for the rest of eternity." An evil thought springs into my mind. "It would be a shame to leave you three out here in the middle of this cold, dark, haunted forest, after all. Don't you think, Bumblebee?" I turn to the mini Bee.

Bee nods. "It would, DJ," He says, following along with my plan.

I smile. Bee probably knows me better than any of the other Mini Bots and Cons.

"Isn't it said that a sparkling wanders this forest?""

A sly smile flashes across Bee's faceplate. "That's right, Avey.""

"Avey?" I ask Bee.

Bee's face falls. "I'm sorry. If you don't like the nick name…"—"

"Nononono. No," I say, waving my hands in a crossway motion. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean that. I like the nickname, Bee. Anyway, she's all alone, searching for lost and forgotten toys. Like the ones that complain about getting into a stupid duffle bag. I cast an accusing eye to the protesting Mini Autobots."

Sunstreaker laughs and crosses his arms. "Yeah, as if we're going to believe that, DJ.""

I do a face palm. "You're right. I don't know why I thought that you guys would believe me. But it was certainly worth a shot. But, looking into reality, those of you who do not want to get into the stupid duffle bag can stay here and get trampled by bears and have foxes come and pick you up and use you as chew toys. I don't want to leave you here, but I will not make you do something that you don't want to do."

I hold my hand down for Bee, Soundwave and Optimus. Optimus and Bee gesture for Soundwave to go first. Soundwave gets on my hand. I slide him into my duffle bag with great care.

The formerly rebellious Bots look at each other.

Jazz steps forward. "Avery, I'm sorry for the scene that I made. I will get into the bag under one condition."

I raise an eyebrow. "And that condition will be?" I ask in my best business voice. I am not liking the tone or the glint that Jazz had in his optics.

Soundwave has to stay behind."

I cross my arms and narrow my eyes. "That would be a negative, Ghost Rider. How about, instead, Soundwave stays with me?""

"Can I stay with you too?" Bee asks.

"Well, duh!""

Bee climbs up my jacket and onto my shoulder. Soundwave, however, transforms and flies up. So, I have two of my favorite TFs on my shoulders. How cool is that?!

I help the TFs into the bag and zip it. I made sure to leave a crack so that it can't get too stuffy and hot in there for the Bots. I grab Bee and place him on the ground for a moment. I place the strap on my shoulder and place Bee on it. "So," I say, clapping my hands together. "Who's riding with who?"

"Agent Steinbeck is going to ride with Jazz." Agent Shelton says. I'm going to ride with Bee." I can tell he isn't happy about that. He has a very dark look. What does he have against Bumblebee?

"Captain Lennox is going to ride with Iron Hide," Agent Shelton continues. "And Agent Lovelady is going to drive the suburban back to our base. You have a choice to ride with any of us."

I glare at the three life ruin-ers. Not including Agent Steinbeck. I give him, Bee, and Jazz an apologetic smile. "I'll walk, thank you very much." I start skipping away from the snowy mountains and into the green forest.

"I don't think so, kid," Captain Lennox says.

"I can take care of myself just fine, _Captain_." I say over my shoulder. "I do _not_ want to ride with any of you under any circumstances. I am _not_ going to ride with them. Would anyone? I mean they just literally ruined my life.

I notice that Bee is cringing (not the mini, the regular sized one). I don't understand why he is doing that but it's strange. Why would Bee be cringing? I ignore it for the moment.

"Avery?" Captain Lennox sighs.

I turn around to see what he wants. "Yes?""

The Captain has his right hand over his eyes. "You're going the wrong way.""

"Oh." I giggle in spite of myself. "My bad." I walk back to the group with a silly smile. "Which way to the Autobot stronghold, Captain Lennox?""

He points toward the opposite direction. "It's that way.""

I blink once. Twice. Three times. I know I have a blank look on my face.

"Okay." I walk away and go to the direction that Captain Lennox pointed out.

"Avery, you are serious about this, aren't you?""

"Yes." I turn around to face them. "I'm walking to the base. Besides, if I get lost in the woods or something, later on I can find a way back a bit more easily."

Iron Hide is obviously not a patient Bot. He transforms into a GMC black pickup like on the movie. There's is a mixture of a familiar sound of the clanking pieces of armor fitting together like prices of a very complex puzzle. There is also the hissing of the hydraulics. An idea comes into my head.

"How about I ride with Iron Hide, but in the back?""

"NO!" Big Bee shouts.

That takes me by surprise. I jump a little. Mini Bee and Soundwave almost fall off.

"Sorry," I apologize to the Minis.

"No problemo, Avey!" I feel Mini Bee's servos grab my pullover.

"We all know how easily you startle, Avery," Soundwave whispers. "But you do have a cute yelp."

I look at the ground and blush. "Did I yelp?" I ask in a hushed tone.

"You did." Mini Bee laughs.

Bee clears his throat. "What I meant is, Iron Hide tried to kill Avery. Don't you think that it would be best if she rides with someone else?"

"I would prefer to be by myself." I make sure to raise my voice at 'by myself' and direct it to the adults.

Agent Steinbeck and Bee look hurt. Agent Shelton looks pleased, and Captain Lennox... I can't tell.

I walk over to Hide. I grab Bee and Soundwave. I place them in the back. I climb onto the tire of the pickup and placed my duffle bag in the back. I heave myself over the side with ease. I have had a lot of practice heaving myself into a pickup.

"Besides," I say without looking behind me, "I like going over the bumps in the road. So, Iron Hide, you can go as fast as you want." _If I fall out,_ I think to myself, _I'll have a good excuse to walk the rest of the way._ Clever, clever.

"Who said I needed your permission?" Iron Hide sounds snarky.

"How about this, if you lose the attitude or at least tone it down, I won't tell Optimus that you tried to kill me," I say with a smile.

I plop into the back and sit there. I narrow my eyes. I hear a sigh from someone but I don't care who.

"Hide?" I ask quietly.

"What?" He asks with an impatient tone.

"I won't tell, even if you treat me like a Decepticon.""

"And she means it!" Mini Jazz shouts from my bag.

I get out my iPod and find my favorite playlist. I place my black headphones, with yellow duct tape wrapped around the headpiece, over my ears and plug it into the headphone jack.

I turn up the music so I can't hear anything else. "Anthem of the Lonely," the Nightcored version, comes on. I keep quiet as the rock song plays its angry and sad sounding music. on.

Being sad and angry isn't really something that I can be. But, I can keep a grudge for a long time. Sad and angry songs help me stay in that mood.

The next song is "Echo." It is a song that I found on YouTube. The song that's playing is the English version sung by the talented JubyPhonic.

I sing along with the song. "The clock stopped ticking forever ago. How long have I been up? I don't know. I can't get a grip but I get let go. There wasn't anything to hold onto though. Why can't I see? Why can't I see? All the colors that you see. Please can I be…please can I be…colorful and free? What the heck's going on?" Instead of heck, the other word is another h' word. I don't like cussing like that but I tolerate it. "Can someone tell me please? Why I'm switching faster than the channels on TV? I'm black then I'm white, no something isn't right. My enemy's invisible I don't know how to fight. The trembling fear is more than I can take when I'm up against the echo in the mirror. ECHO!""

Soundwave taps my head.

I pause my music and take off my headphones.

"Can we listen?" I am a little taken aback at his question. I smile. I take out the headphones and turn up the music so all of us can hear it (as in Bee, Soundwave, and I).

One of my favorite songs comes on. It is "When Can I See You Again," by Owl City. I start to sing along. Soundwave and Bee start to dance. They have really neat moves. Bee, of course does the robot and a few moves that I recognize from Prime Season 1 episode 8. I can't help but laugh at the similarity; he is an amazing dancer. Soundwave is awesome at dancing. The other Minis ask if they could join in the dance party. I, of course, let them out to join the group.

When the song ends, I clap, "Bravo, bravo! _Felicimo_ , _felicimo_! Encore!" I laugh.

Bee and Soundwave bow to me, then to each other. They bang helms as they bow down. I laugh so hard my sides hurt. Bee and Soundwave look at me mischievously at me. I point an accusing finger at the two. "Don't _ever_ do that again."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

I actually have a lot of fun rocking out to my favorite tunes with the minis. Most of my tunes are Hatsune Miku, some Nightcored songs by various artists. I have a long playlist of every song that I have in that iPod. Watching Bee, Soundwave, and the Minis dance, while I hum, is so much fun.

Iron Hide stops in front of a colossal iron building. There are five rows of windows that suggest there are five stories high. But the "stories" are much taller than what I am used to. Just one level seems like it can hold a seven or eight story building!

The length and width of the building seem to stretch beyond my eyesight.

If my dad was here, he could give me a rough estimate of how long the building is. Well, maybe an estimate of what I _can_ see.

A wave of sadness sweeps over me when I think of my dad. Bee must notice my mood change, for he places his small servo on my combat boot. I give him a grateful smile.

The Minis, except for Soundwave and Mini Bee, get back into my duffle bag and I close the flap part way.

I grab Bee and Soundwave and place them on the railing of the pickup. I stuff my iPod in the front pocket of my purple pullover and keep my headphones around my neck. I slide my bag closer to the side of the pickup. I swing my leg over the side and look for the tire. I find it and swing my other leg over. I grab my bag and sling the shoulder strap over my shoulder. I hop off the tire. I hold out my hands for Bee and Soundwave to get on. I place each of them on my shoulders.

Iron Hide and the rest of the Bots transform. Agents Shelton, Steinbeck, and Captain Lennox are standing next to their escorts. I ignore the humans and walk past them.

I stop myself in wonder. _Why am I referring my own race as 'humans'?_

I shake my head and continue walking. This is a fragment. The Bots must be getting to me. Then again, they have been ever since I saw my first Transformers: _Transformers_ ,when I was eight or six…I think.

I sigh and walk into the big open doorway of the base. All around me there are Autobots. I'm on the brink of going fangirl, once again. Seriously, I don't think I have ever Fangirled this much in one day since I saw the cover for my favorite book series "Keeper of the Lost Cities" and when I saw a certain episode of _Doctor Who_.

In the room there is one pink and white femme, Elita-One; a red and blue mech, Optimus Prime (duh!); a red and white mech, Ratchet; an olive green mech, Bulkhead, a blue and pink femme, Arcee; an extremely stern looking, lighter blue and red mech, Ultra Magnus; and a yellow, blue, and white mech, Smokescreen. They don't seem to notice me, which I am fine with. They probably don't want to meet a fangirling girl at the moment.

After being homeschooled for most of your life, you sort of get pushed to the side when you're with the public schoolers. it usually makes me feel left out and unwanted, especially when you used to be friends with some of those people. You start to realize that some of your friendships weren't as strong as you thought they were. I always found a way to have fun, though; you can say that I adapted and I don't need friends to have fun. I have my imagination. From what I've noticed imagination didn't seem to be a big part of my former friends' lives in public school.

Yes, I did go to public school…for a year and a half. I liked it at first, until I got strep throat after a week in the fourth grade. I got over that in a few weeks. Then I got it again. It was extremely brutal. I actually remember working on my book report while I was sick. Anyway, I made a few friends. I highly doubt that they'll remember me after all this time. Besides, they didn't really seem to make an effort to connect with me and so we've drifted apart.

Getting off track.

I make my way to a corner and sit on the smooth concrete floor. I prefer to watch others and see how they act around each other, then join in. I usually end up doing something that I'll regret and act "immature" around others.

The minis come out of the bag and, sit in various places around or on me. Sideswipe actually sits on my head, but I don't care. The worst that Sides can do is cut my hair.

Agent Steinbeck comes over and sits next to me.

I ignore him.

"They're quite amazing, aren't they?" He asks.

I don't answer. I am not going to talk to him until he takes me home or gives a heartfelt apology, maybe a little bit of begging too.

"Still mad at me?" He asks.

"Can't say I blame her," Blight says. "I wasn't the one who took her away from her family and ruined her life."

Rage seems to boil inside of him. He stands up and stares—more like glares—at the Predacon. "Don't you sass me, pipsqueak! I didn't even know that she wasn't able to see her family again!" He shouts angrily. Every head/helm turns to stare at us.

Blight stands up from my leg. "Who are you calling a pipsqueak, Bigfoot?!"

I place a finger on Blight's shoulder. "Blight, don't."

Blight looks at me and then sits back down.

"Thank you. And Agent Steinbeck, I would very much appreciate it if you would not treat them as if they were toys. They have feelings, you know. As long as I am here, you will treat them with respect. Do you understand?" I say with a slight edge. I'm not happy that Agent Steinbeck used that tone with Blight.

Blight stares at me in awe and respect.

I look at him. "What?"

"Y-you defended me?"

I nod. "Yeah. Is there something wrong with that?"

Blight shakes his head or helm. (Would you use head or helm with the mini Bots?) "No."

I run my finger up and down his back trying to calm him down. After five minutes, the little guy topples over and mumbles something about rocks. He must be asleep. He must be much more tired than me. I smile a little. I gently pick him up and place him in the bag again. I take a quick glance at Agent Steinbeck.

I open my backpack and get out the drawing. I turn the paper blank side up. I slide it to Agent Steinbeck.

He turns it up. His mouth drops. "Avery, this is beautiful. When—Why did you—"

"Hey, you're just the bag carrier, remember?"

He smiles. "So you like me?"

I give him a sidelong look with a smile. "Hey, anyone's better than Agent Shelton, right?"

Agent Steinbeck laughs. "You are right about that."

Soundwave is on the ground, staring at the big Bots. His body is rigid, and he looks nervous. I pick him up and place him back on my shoulder.

The G1 Jazz laughs. "Don't be so scared, Con."

I hear a breath of relief from the mini Con. He seems to relax a lot.

I'm glad that the minis are helping Soundwave feel more comfortable.

I smile at Jazz. Always was one of the nice ones…I think.

"A-a Con?" Elita- One says in horror. "A _CON_!" Her voice becomes shrill.

I give her a friendly smile. "Yes, Elita-One. Soundwave is a Con. Didn't you know that he was?"

"I did," Elita says indignantly.

"Is it going to be a problem that he'll be here?" I ask.

"Yes," Ratchet says in a gruff tone. "He'll give away Autobot intel to the Cons."

"Soundwave gave me his word that he would not do so." I try to remain calm and confident, but it's very hard doing so with all these eyes/optics staring and glaring at me. "I trust him."

Ratchet scoffs. "Why would you trust a Con?"

"Because, everyone deserves a second chance; and…just because someone may be the bad guy on a movie or TV show doesn't mean that they are in reality."

Silence falls across the room. I can tell that some of them are uncomfortable, while others are confused. I notice that a vast majority of the minis have gone back into my bag. I sort of want to join them, with all the stares. It's sort of making me uncomfortable.

I stand up. Bee is on my left shoulder and Soundwave is on my right. both on one shoulder?. I clear my throat. "I'm sorry, but I don't think we've been properly introduced. I'm Avery. But you can call me Avery or DJ."

"Judging by the toys around you," Ratchet nods to my bag, "you're a fan."

I raise an eyebrow. "Of course! Transformers _is_ the best cartoon in the whole _entire galaxy_!"

Laughter erupts in the room.

I place my hands on my hips, form my lips into a thin line, and eye all of the Autobots. _Are they serious? Are there other cartoons that are real that I don't know of?_ "What? It's true. The Autobots are awesome."

"You probably like it because of the action," Bulkhead laughs.

I nod. "Yes, I do," I admit, "but I also like it, because the Autobots are so good to the humans. They're noble and they protect the planet like they would as if it was their own home."

I can tell that I got them at that. "Would it be okay if I guessed who's who?"

Ratchet is about to say something, but Iron Hide interrupts. "Yeah, DJ. Let's see how well you know the Autobots."

"I already know who guys you are." I say pointing to Bee, Jazz, and Hide. "You're Elita-One."

Elita nods.

"You're Bulkhead."

"How'd ya guess?"

"You're Ultra Magnus."

"Affirmative."

"You're Arcee."

"Yep."

"You're Ratchet."

He grunts.

I smile. "Woah. He really is red, white, and grouchy."

I hear a few giggles from Arcee and Elita and a huge burst of laughter from Smokescreen. "You're Smokescreen."

"What gave it away?"

"Your paint job. And you're the Boss Bot, Optimus Prime."

"I am."

I beam at Optimus.

"Are you going to do your little dance?" Big Bee asks me.

I shake my head. "Nooooo." I feel my cheeks burn up. "Do you think I should?"

Bee shrugs. "I don't know, but maybe you can get a laugh out of Optimus."

Optimus raises an optic ridge.

That gets me. Maybe I can get a few chuckles from Optimus. I place Bee and Sound wave in the duffle bag. I start doing my little Dori happy dance. Near the end, Iron Hide yells at me to shut up, the way he did at my last dance performance on Bee's servo. His outburst startles me once more. I stumble over my own feet and fall on my fanny. I still continue my Dori act. "P. Sherman 42 Wally Way, Sydney! I remebered it again!"

Smokescreen falls down laughing. I don't think I have ever seen anyone laugh that hard before. It is really nice to see someone laugh like that.

I laugh so hard at Smokescreen that my sides hurt. Everyone, minus Ratchet, Agent Shelton, Ultra Magnus, and Optimus, laughs. Except Optimus does smile and chuckle quietly, though.

"Would you like to see where you're going to sleep?" Big Bee asks.

I nod. The sleep part sounds good and it catches my attention. I head to my bags. I weave my one arm through the right shoulder strap and my left arm through the other strap. I place the strap of my duffle bag on my shoulder.

I turn to the others. "See ya later, alligators!"

I don't expect anyone to reply, but Smokescreen, Bulkhead, Jazz, and Elita, wave. "After a while, crocodile!"

I like this place already. Everyone is so nice, excluding Ratchet and Ultra Magnus, but I'll get to them…somehow.

Bee walks to a long hallway that is filled with corridors and doorways. The walls are metal and boring, so not much to say about them. I practically have to trot to keep up with Bee's walking pace.

At the end of one hallway, there is a flight of stairs. The steps are about the size of a one story house!

Bee starts climbing the stairs.

There is no way I will be able to climb those stairs without help. "Hey, Bee? Where can I find a ladder?"

Bee pauses and twists around. He holds out his servo and smiles. "Hop aboard!"

I happily do as I am told.

Bee places me on his shoulder.

I think I like this place better than the tree, where I was stuck.

He climbs the stairs in silence. We reach the third level and head down more corridors. Everything seems to be the same as the first floor.

He stops at a door. It's Cybertronian sized, and there's a human sized door inside the door. Bee sets me on the ground. He opens the Cybertronian sized door. He steps to the side and gestures me to go in first. "Ladies first." He says with a smile.

I smile back. "Thank you, Bumblebee!"

The room is enormous, big enough to fit all of the Bots I met today. The only piece of furniture is a plain human bed with white sheets and a single pillow. The walls are bare and are plain, boring beige.

Even though most of it is boring, the one thing that catches my attention is the window, which I stand gaping at the pane of glass is a huge dome-like thing, and it has a _window seat_ and shelves to place figurines and books. It's also a perfect place to put plants and stuff like that.

"We found out that you were coming on short notice," Bee explains. "If we had known earlier, we would've done more to this room. Other than add a window seat and shelves. We weren't sure what you would like, though."

"I love it," I whisper.

"What?" Bee asks in surprise. "Really?"

"I love it!" I say even louder. "I can decorate this place however I want. Maybe if my stuff was here, I can put all of my posters up and maybe…" I trail off. Images of how this room can look like flashes through my head. Ideas race in and out. Some being discarded and other placed in a maybe pile. Adrenaline and inspiration mixes together and makes me smile and run all around the room taking it all in, planning where to put stuff and—EEEEP… PAINT THIS ROOM HOWEVER I WANT!

Despite my enthusiasm to paint the room, I feel like this place is forbidden to me, the newcomer. Maybe unpacking some of my things will give me a sense of comfort.

It doesn't hurt to try.

I walk slowly to the bed and gently plop my bag onto it.

I don't why I feel so hesitant to unpack. Maybe, it is because it'll seem to be the official act of leaving my family. The scary realization of never going back to Mom and Dad again. Or is it that...

If I unpack my bag and get settled in, will the government workers take me away?

"Avery? Are you okay?"

I turn my torso so I can face Bee. There is that mysterious emotion again. "I don't know. I guess I am afraid that if I settle in, those government workers will take me away."

"DJ," he says gently, "the Autobots won't let that happen. The agents made it very clear that you're going to stay here permanently."

Bee's words make me feel better and more comfortable and certain that I am going to stay here for a _very_ long time.

I cautiously open my bag to help the Minis get out. Many of them are fast asleep. I decide to take out the blanket carefully. I reach into my bag and pull out the blanket. Only Sideswipe and Optimus stir in their sleep. I place the folded cheetah patterned blanket on the bed and allow the poor guys to sleep. I get out my books. I take my time walking to the bookshelves and place them on the top shelf of the ten. I walk back to my bag and get out my bear and my owl. I place them side by side on my bed, messing with their positions a little.

I turn my head to Bee. "Hey."

Bee seems to snap out of a daze. He looks down at me. "Hm?" His face has a slight smile.

"Do you want to sit down and chat?"

Bee sits crisscross applesauce on the ground in front of my bed.

I blush. "I don't really know what to talk about."

Bee smiles. "I don't know either."

I think for a moment. "What kind of music do you like to listen to?" I say as I pull out my computer from the folds of the blanket.

Bee shrugs. "What do you have?"

I turn on my computer. I sit down on the floor while I wait for the computer to boot. I have Windows 8 on my computer so I have a lock screen, and the picture on it is the Autobot's symbol.

I look at my new friend and rescuer. I still can't believe that he is real. It is almost like a dream. I don't want to wake up from it, if it is a dream.

Bee chuckles. "You must really like us."

"Indeed."

I enter the password and head to… "Um. Doo-dodo. Are you sure you don't have a preference?"

Bee shakes his head. "I saw you and the Minis rocking out, so whatever you were listening to is fine."

I nod. "Oakie dokie!"

I turn on that playlist. One of my favorite songs turn on: "Chasing the Sun." Who it's by, I don't know. All I know is that it isn't by The Wanted. I spin and grabbed my blanket from my bag. I unfold it and refold it lengthwise so it will drape over the end of the bed. Oh, wait, that right, it's by Hilary Duff. The original is a bit too slow for me. The Nightcored version is much better. To me, that is.

I continue to unpack my bag.

Bee's optics go wide in surprise. His expression seems to say _I just remembered!_ "I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner."

I turn to him. Curiosity runs through me. I feel like a cat and seeing its first red laser. "Yes, Bee?"

"Your stuff is going to be sent over here in a few days."

I raise an eyebrow in confusion. "Do you mean that stuff in my room at the place where I used to live?"

Bee nods. "Yeah. I think so."

I shrug. "Okay." I turn my head to my computer. The clock reads 9:01p.m. No wonder the Minis are tired. The idea of sleep sounds a little inviting. I open my mouth and yawn. Yet, I am not tired.

Bee gives me a caring smile. "You tired?"

I tilt my head to the side. "Um..not really. I'm just adjusting to the higher elevation."

He nods again. He stands to leave. "Well, I am tired."

He sounds like a teenager. I wonder how old he is.

"If there's anything you need, my room is right across from yours. Goodnight, DJ. Recharge well."

I run to him and hug his pede. Every night my family would exchange hugs before we went to bed. I want to keep that up. "Goodnight, Bee. You recharge well, too."

He pats my head. I release my grip. "Bee, I'm sorry if I had hurt your feelings not riding with you. I didn't want to talk to the humans. If Agent Shelton wasn't going with you I would've gone with you one hundred percent!"

"I understand, Avery. And I accept your apology only if you and I go for a ride one of these days."

I salute him. "Yes, sir."

Bee chuckles. "See you in the morning." He looks down. Bee starts to fidget and sway from one pede to the other. He appears to be nervous. "And…um…I was wondering… would you…um…"

I raise my eyebrow. "Yes."

"Would it be okay if…I became your guardian?"

I stare at him.

How can this day possibly get any better?

"Yes. _YES!_ I would love it if you became my guardian."

"Okay." Bee behaves more relaxed and he smiles brightly. And the look in his eyes is full of that mystifying emotion that keeps popping up at random times. He walks out of the room. Before closing the door, he gives me a caring smile.

"See ya!" I fall asleep feeling like I am wanted here.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

I wake up at ten at night. I look around. Sound Wave is sleeping next to my neck. On the other side, Bee's doing the same. The others are scattered all over my bed. I smile and go back to sleep.

I wake up at eleven, twelve and all the way up to…I don't know. I decide that sleep's highly overrated. I have a tugging sensation in my stomach. I'm hungry. Then again, I haven't eaten a thing since my last dinner at home. I can't believe I haven't had anything to eat since then!

The scene of my last dinner with my family pops into my mind. That night, we had okonomiyaki. I like that cabbage pizza…like thing…we were laughing and giving each other a hard time and…having fun…

I miss home.

I shake my head at the thought. No, that place used to be home. _This_ place is my home, with the Autobots.

I do not like waking up tired, then going back to sleep, and then waking up tired.

I gently lift the covers of my bed. The minis are still sleeping all over my bed and pillow. Some of them shift as I crawl out of the bed. "I hope they have a refrigerator around here somewhere." I whisper to myself.

I grab my iPod. The clock tells me that it's 2:59 a.m. I groan softly. I don't want to wake the Minis up.

I quietly open the door and close it behind me. The hall has a faint blue, ghostly glow from the lights high above my head. An intersection is at the end of the hall. A soft yellow light is coming from the left side of the intersection. I head to it. The first door on the right is wide open. It's Cybertronian sized, so I guess it belongs to one of the Bots.

I peek around the corner, trying to be as stealthy as I can be. I see Optimus's body slumped over a Bot sized computer. It looks like a mixture of the computers from Prime and G1.

I heave a sigh. Maybe I should go in there and force him to go to bed? So much for finding a fridge…

I walk in. I'm looking around. The place looks like a normal room, minus the fact that everything is metal and large. I feel like I just stepped into some messed up sci-fi or Transformer version of _Jack and the Beanstalk_. I wonder if they have something like _Jack and the Beanstalk_ on Cybertron.

An image of a Cybertronian standing next to someone that would be a titan compared to him pops into my head. That would be strange on many different levels.

I look around for something that can allow me to climb up to the desk. I find a ladder that's tall enough to reach the keypad. I think that having a ladder is odd. What would Optimus use it for?

I climb the ladder to the keyboard. Optimus's optics are closed and his breathing is deep and heavy. Yep…he's asleep.

From the position of Optimus's body, I can tell that he works late nights. The position that Optimus is in seems natural, rather than rigid. I turn to the computer. What at first looked like gibberish actually turns out to be Cybertronian. It still looks like gibberish to me.

I turn back to Optimus. He's bigger than Bumblebee that's for sure. I place my hands on his forearm. His fore arm is taller than my Dad. I gently shake it. "Sir? Sir, wake up." I said in a hushed tone.

Optimus shifts his position but doesn't wake. My shoulders slump in disbelief and disappointment. _Oh, dear._

I try again. "Optimus Prime!" I say loud enough to hopefully wake up the leader of the Autobots but not wake anyone else.

There is no response except for a slight snore. I really hate to do this. I kick his arm. I forget that didn't have shoes on.

I grunt in pain and hop up and down on my good foot. "Ow! Ow, ow, owowow!"

He jerks up in surprise. He looks around with a sleepy expression. He stretches and rubs his optics with the palm of his servo. "A-Avery?" He sounds surprised and confused. He doesn't sound fully awake though. "Wha-what are you doing here so late at night?"

"I couldn't sleep…" I say through gritted teeth. "And I was looking for a fridge. Actually, sir," I take out my iPod, "it's three a.m. in the morning."

He does a disappointed face-palm. "I see.."

"You worked late again, right?" I bring my foot down. It feels a little better.

Optimus nods. "Ye—" He stops abruptly and stares at me in astonishment. "How did you come to that conclusion?"

"Your reaction, first of all." I hold up my pointer finger. "Two," I hold up two fingers, "the position you were in You looked so comfy sprawled out on your keyboard I thought you grew there. " I'm now holding up three fingers, "Three, your light was on." I hold up another finger, "Four…" I think about number four, "oh, you were _not_ in your bed." I hold up one more finger, "And five…I don't know."

Optimus nods. "You are right, Miss Halverson, I did work late no comma again." He seems fully awake now.

I smile. "If that's the case…you head to bed right this minute, young man, or else you're grounded for two months." I say playfully. I cross my arms, trying to look stern. Being stern is pretty hard to do when you're trying not to smile. It is hard for me, especially when I'm always smiling.

I drop my stern act when Optimus…actually laughs. I uncross my arms and stare at Optimus. It's the only thing I can do, gawk.

 _Hehe gawk, sounds like squawk. Gawk, squawk, gawk, squidfiuovapsuhidslak. Huh I guess it's a bit of a tongue twister._

"S-sir, d-did you actually l-laugh?" I ask him. I didn't know that Optimus could laugh. Okay, well, I do, but he never does it in the TV show. Brings me back to the conversation that I had: Just because someone is the bad guy on TV doesn't mean that they really are in real life.

"You didn't think that I was someone who doesn't know how to have fun, did you?" He asks with his optic ridge raised.

I rub the back of my head in embarrassment. "Uh…hehe he. IIIIIIII did. Hehe."

"Do you remember what you said earlier?" I nod. "Just because someone is the bad guy on the movie doesn't mean that they are in reality. I was just thinking about that."

"Those were wise words for someone so young," Optimus comments.

My eyes are wide and the blood rushes to my face. "Thank you, sir."

"Miss Halverson, don't call me 'sir'. Call me Optimus. I consider most of the Autobots in this Base friends and family."

"I will call you Optimus, just as long as you call me Avery, AJ, DJ, Jill, or Delilah. Not Miss Halverson." Bargaining was one of my favorite things to do. But I didn't like to do it all the time.

Optimus raises an optic ridge at the long list of nicknames. "Deal." Optimus holds out his digit.

I shake it. "Deal, Optimus."

He smiles. "What is the reason for the long list of nicknames?"

"My full name is Avery Delilah Jillian Halverson. My parents couldn't decide on a middle name." Sadness fills me when I realize that they aren't my biological parents. I feel like crying at the thought of my family. My mom's soft hazel eyes twinkling as she laughs. My dad's deep voice as he comforts me when my first cat died. "Well, I thought they were my parents."

Optimus leans forward an inch or two. "Do you want to talk about it?" Optimus gives me an understanding and sad smile.

I shake my head. "No. I-I don't really want to." I look away and focus on the keypad I'm standing on. "I'm sorry…"

"Avery."

The tone in his voice makes me look at him.

"You have no reason to be sorry. Also, it's not good to keep your emotions bottled up, especially at a young age."

The kind and caring glint in his optics makes me cringe at my refusal. "I'm…I'm sorry. I'm not ready to talk about it. Besides, my brain is still slightly muddled. I can't really think clearly."

I decide to change the subject. "What were you doing that made you work late?" The strange characters on the screen fascinate me and peak my curiosity. This is when being able to read, write, and speak any language instinctively would be handy…

I frown at the gibberish in slight frustration. _I would actually like to know what you say, stupid computer._

Optimus hesitates for a moment and eyes me with an expressionless face. Reading his thoughts is impossible. "I was reading a file and writing a log," Optimus replies dryly.

"A file? What is it about?"

Optimus gives me another blank stare.

I sigh. "Let me guess, 'top secret'?"

Optimus affirms my suspicion with a nod.

I shrug. "Okie-doke, Boss Bot." My tone sounds chipper, but I wasn't feeling that emotion. I felt irritation at him. But…then again…if a secret gets out then an operation could be compromised… Optimus didn't act like this when I first encountered him. He seemed to be a lively person, but now he's kind of acting like a statue…

I sit down on the keypad. I accidentally sit on a button. It makes a high pitch _beep_. I jump back up in surprise. I stare at the button. _What the…?_ "The stupid thing scared me." I point at the button. "Did I mess anything up?"

Optimus shakes his helm. "No."

"Okay. I'm good sitting on this then?"

Optimus nods.

I give him a thumbs up.

I sit back down on the button. This time I'm prepared for the high-pitched noise.

"So…" I look at Optimus. "You better to bed."

Optimus nods with a small smile. "Okay." He turns back to his computer.

I place my hands on my hips. "And just what do you think you're doing?"

"I'm going to finish reading this report, then I'm going to bed." Optimus replies, not taking his optics off the screen. Jeez, he's a workaholic.

I tap my foot impatiently. "I don't think so."

He stares at me with a blank face.

"Everyone needs their rest, Optimus. Even you."

Optimus sighs. "Okay."

He gets up from his chair, he presses a button, and the screen goes dark. He yawns. He smiles at me and hold out his servo and bows, being a gentleman. "May I be of service, Lady Avery Delilah Jillian?"

I curtsy. "Of course, Sir Optimus Prime." I slide into his servo. He places me on the ground.

He turns to the light switch. "Good night, Avery."

I smile. "Good night, Optimus."

"Oh, and Avery? If you ever need someone to talk to, I'm here."

I hug his pede. "Thank you so much." I walk out the door, leaving Optimus with a dumbfounded look on his faceplate.

Huh. I never thought that I would see that.

Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Optimus shaking his head in what seems to be disbelief.

"It can't be possible." I hear Optimus say softly. "She doesn't seem to be…but it's probable…"

I wanted to ask Optimus about what he was talking about, but he needs to sleep. And after what Optimus said, about the file…I better not ask.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

I wake up. It's 3:30 and it's still dark outside. The minis are still asleep. I get out of the bed and start to pick out an outfit from my limited wardrobe. I am not tired or sleepy at all. It is kind of strange for me. I usually wake up sleepy and wanting to sleep the day away.

I get out my duffle bag and rummage through my limited wardrobe. I settle for a cream-colored knee length skirt and a teal short-sleeved shirt. Nothing fancy.

Since I have been out running through the woods and climbing trees, I decide to look for a shower. I look around my new room, looking for a door or something that may be a bathroom.

I turn my head left, then right.

On one wall there's a white door. I go to inspect it. I open the door and see a beautiful bathroom. As the British would say, it's posh. The walls are a light pink, and the bathtub's a Jacuzzi. A waterfall shower is on the other side of the room. A porcelain bowl sink and an oval shaped mirror sits across from the waterfall. It's the most elegant bathroom I have ever seen. The towel rods are a silver color and they hold the softest, whitest, looking towels I have ever seen. I had never dreamed of having a bathroom like this until I had my own home. Okay…now that I think about it, maybe not even then.

I hop into the shower and take a long, hot, soapy dip. When I come out it's four thirty. I grab one of the white towels. The towels are the softest I have ever felt.

I wonder when the Bots did this. There is no way that they could have fit in here. Unless they have holoforms. Do they have those?

If they do, I wonder what they look like?

"I donned my clothes," I sing a part from "Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons as I put my clothes on. "It's a revolution I suppose." I giggle softly to myself.

I wrap my hair up in the towel and start to brush my teeth. I hum a few tunes as I do. I'm in a really good mood, even though I dislike getting up this early. I guess the thought of living with the Autobots, the heroes I look up to ever since I was six, excites me. In each Transformer cartoon I saw, my favorite characters are Optimus, Bumblebee…all of them. Except for a few of the Cons, of course, Sentinel Prime (that stupid traitor or pain in the butt), and Ultra Magnus. I don't really like how he's a 'by the book' kind of guy. He can really be a stick in the mud at times.

I put my hair into two low ponytails. I get two red ribbons and wrap one ribbon each around my pigtails. I put on some lip-gloss. I forgot to pack lip balm and my lips are very dry.

I walk over to my duffle bag again and grab my dagger. I attach the scabbard to the belt that's connected to the skirt.

When I open the door, it's still dark out and the Minis are awake. I bid them a good morning.

"Do you guys mind if I make the bed?"

The Minis move to the foot of the bed.

I untangle my owl and bear from the sheets. I pull the three layers of blankets up and fold the first nine or ten inches of the sheets hotel style. I fluff up the pillow and place it at the head of the bed. I grab my bear and owl and put them next to each other. I straighten my leopard print blanket.

Since when did I make my bed nicely in the morning?

"Thanks guys."

The Minis nod.

I look around. This room is big and there's nothing dirty about it. I sigh. I fold my Pjs and put them in my duffle bag. I grab a pair of lime green socks I sit down on my bed, and put them on. I grab my combat boots and pull them on.I don't have anything else to do, so I think that exploring sounds like a good idea. And possibly see if Optimus knows where I can get some wall paint.

My stomach growls. I giggle. _And food_.

"I'm going to find some food, you guys."

Bee and Soundwave wave. The others follow suit.

"See ya guys later."

I creep out of the room and into the hall. The hall has this eerie silence to it. That's odd. It didn't have it last time. It sort of creeps me out. The ceiling lights still have their ghostly, blue glow, though.

I walk to the door across mine. If I heard right, this must be Bumblebee's room.

 _My guardian's room_. I think happily.

I quietly open the human size door. I peek in and see Bee still sleeping with his back towards me. I tip toe in. He turns over so his face was is facing me. His optics are closed. He giggles. A small smile comes across his faceplate.

I smile. Bee must be having a dream. I hope it's a good one. I shouldn't wake up Bee. Before I leave, though, I whisper, "Thank you so much, Bee."

I exit Bee's room.

I wander around the twisting maze of hallways and corridors. I see many doors, French doors, and signs in Cybertronian that I can't read whatsoever. It makes wish that I could speak any and all languages instinctively. Japanese, Latin, and Spanish would be so much easier if I could do that.

I find stairs, but I can't climb them. I would have to be ten times taller to climb those stairs.

I take a left and I end up at an intersection, and a huge dining room appears. It's obviously made for Cybertronians because of the huge metal tables.

The place looks deserted. Well, it does until Optimus comes out from a swinging door from the opposite side of the table. When he sees me, he smiles and bows. "Good morning, Lady Avery Delilah."

I smile at the red and blue mech. I curtsy. "Good morning, Sir Optimus."

 _When did we start this play of acting like we are in the medieval times? It's really fun._

"What are you doing up so early, again?" Optimus asks me as he starts to clean the table with a piece of cloth that's way bigger than me.

"Sleep was beginning to be highly overrated."

Optimus gives me a sad smile. "You couldn't sleep again." The way he says it sounds more of like a statement than a question.

I nod.

His optics move up and down. "You look very cute today, Avery."

I feel the blood rush to my face. I grab a hold of my skirt and twist it. "Thank you, Optimus."

He nods with a smile.

"Did you sleep well?" I ask him again.

"Oh. Yes, I did sleep well. Did you?"

I shrug. "I had better nights."

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah!" I give him a smile. I actually don't feel okay. I-I want to go home. I want my mom and dad. I feel like crying. I want to, but I think it might upset Optimus. I give him my biggest smile, while trying to hold back my tears.

My stomach growls.

"What was that?" Optimus asks.

"That would be my stomach," I try to think of a way to say that I'm hungry in a way that Optimus will understand." Telling me that I need nourishment."

I guess I got the wording right, because he chuckles.

I walk to one of the benches. I jump up, trying to grab a hold of the ledge. I jump and miss. The thing is out of reach. I growl in frustration. If I can touch the ceiling that's about a foot or two above my head. I can reach this.

Optimus comes around to my side and kneels down. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to get onto the bench so I can be closer to your faceplate?" I give him a lopsided smile.

He shakes his helm. "The bench is about twenty feet off that ground."

I look up and the bench. "Oh. That measurement does make more sense." My stomach growls again.

He points to the swinging door. "There's a kitchen in there. A human sized one with the things you need."

I stare at the huge swinging door. "Okay. Thank you." I run towards it. I stop in front of it, wondering if I can open it. I push the door with my hands, anchoring myself with my feet. The door budges a little, but not enough for even a mouse to go through. I step back and ponder my situation. I step back a few more paces and run toward the humungo jumbo stupid door.

I may have mistimed my push a little, for I slam into it. I fall on the ground. The door moves a little, though.

Optimus comes running to my side. Shaking the floor beneath me. "Avery, are you okay?" He asks, kneeling down.

"Ow," I say, doing a facepalm.

Optimus laughs. "Is that a yes?"

I get back up on my feet. I brush the dirt off my shirt and smooth my skirt. "Yes. It's a big yes."

He smiles with relief. He opens the door and holds it open for me.

"Thank you," I say with a smile.

"You're welcome."

At least one part of the TV show is right; Optimus is a perfect gentleman.

Behind the door is a kitchen for a human. The cupboards are oaken and the stove is the latest model from Whirlpool™. Pots and pans of different sizes occupy one cupboard, while plates, smaller plates, and bowls occupy another.

I hear Optimus walk into the kitchen area.

I begin searching for what I would need for pancakes. I get out the ingredients for pancakes: flour, milk, eggs, and all the other materials, plus an extra ingredient, a pumpkin flavor thing. I mix up all the ingredients until they are well mixed. I pour the mixture onto a frying pan and wait for it the bottom side to turn a nice golden brown color.

"So, Optimus," I turn to him and place my hands on the counter, "what can you tell me about yourself?"

"How much do you know?" Optimus replied.

I shrug. "What I know from the cartoons."

"Well, I used to be an archivist at the Autobot capitol, Iacon."

I smile. I know this story but I want to hear it from Optimus.

"I was an apprentice under Alpha Trion. Megatronus was an apprentice, also."

My eyes widen. _That's new._

"He had views about the council. He thought that they should be replaced and that they were corrupted. I agreed with him. Over time, I started to consider him like a brother. When we went up to the council to share our views, Megatronus showed everyone what he really had planned. He wanted to rule Cybertron…what is that term that you humans use…under an iron fist?"

I nod. "Yes." This story is very interesting. It's similar to the story that I heard on _Transformers Prime_ , yet it's different. I thought that Megatronus was just a gladiator. I don't remember Megatronus ever being an apprentice.

I turn to my pancake. I flip it over. I start to make some homemade maple syrup, while the other side cooks or fries. I don't know which.

I'm good at cooking and baking—if I do say so myself—but when it comes to cooking, baking, and/or frying terms…I suck.

"He also wanted to kill every Decepticon prisoner that we had in our custody. He wanted to do so many monstrous things. I argued his point. I wanted peace and prosperity between the two factions. Megatronus left and joined the Decepticons. He later made his way to be the leader. And the war was and is even worse than before."

I do not remember anything about the Decepticon prisoners and isn't the war over? In _Transformers Prime_ , the war ended when Megatron realized what it was like to be opressed and decided to no longer inflict it.

"So it's almost like _Transformers Prime_?"

Optimus looks confused.

" _Transformers Prime_ the cartoon." I clarify.

Optimus nods. "That and the very first cartoon is probably the closest you can get to reality."

"Really?" I never realized that _Transformers Prime_ is actually real. "What are the differences?"

"Well...Megatronus was a gladiator and an apprentice. Our original base was actually located in right outside of a little town in Oregon, not Nevada."

"What town?" Does he mean my hometown, the place where I had spent most of my childhood? Well...there are a lot of towns in Oregon so...possibly not.

"I suppose I can tell you," Optimus said with a sideways glance. "It was located right outside of a very small town in eastern Oregon. You probably never heard of it."

"It didn't happen to be outside of Crane, Oregon, did it?" I asked, just wanting to be sure.

Optimus looks at me with a raised optic ridge. "Not exactly. It was right in between Burns and Crane."

I smile and straighten. "I used to live near Crane! Come to think of it, I think I actually saw you guys pass my house, when I was only a toddler."

"You didn't happen to dwell in that white house?"

I nod my head happily. "Yes." That is the only white house in Crane.

"Bee and I actually kept a very close optic on you. I do recall watching you try to lock a helpless grey kitten in a trunk of a small car." He smiles as he seems to recall the memory.

I smile as I try to remember the story that my dad told me. "That was at least ten years ago. The kitten's name was Peanut. I was standing in front of an aqua green car with a white top."

Optimus nods. "You tried to put Peanut into the back of the car. When you got into the driver's seat, the cat jumped out. You got out and placed the cat back in the trunk. That went on for a few more times until you got so mad that you tried to kick Peanut; almost falling over in the process."

I get out a plate, silverware, a glass cup, and one of those things that you use to pour syrup—its name happens to slip my mind. I find the place where they keep the peanut butter and the butter.

I plop the pancake on my plate and apply the butter and then peanut butter on the pancake. I poke holes in the pancake so the syrup can soak through. I then pour the syrup over my delicious-looking pancake.

I go to the fridge and get out the milk. There's a fruit basket filled with those Halos™ …oranges…whatchamacallits. I peel off the skin and separate to two pieces. One of the pieces isn't cooperating. It practically explodes in my face, getting the sweet but sticky juice all over my face, and some of it flies into my right eye.

I close my eyes and giggle. "Well, I can be sure that this orange doesn't have a halo."

Optimus chuckles. "Indeed." He hands me a cloth napkin. I graciously take the napkin and wipe the orange juice off my face.

I nod. "Indeed!" I hand him the napkin back. "Thank you."

Optimus nods.

I find some honey flavored Greek yogurt, and it happens to come in a similar container as the Yoplait™ yogurt.

I am surprised to find a stack of trays, like the kind that I used to use when I went to public school for a year and a half. I use it to carry my breakfast. _Where can I sit to eat?_

"Optimus," I turn to him, "is there a place where I can eat?"

He nods and holds the door open for me again.

"Thank you." I say to Optimus.

He smiles. "It is my pleasure." He points to some stairs that lead up to the table. "There is where you'll sit." I find it odd how they have a whole bunch of stairs and ladders. _They must have a lot of human visitors or something._

I walk up the stairs and sit down on the table. Optimus gives me a small smile. He reaches under the table and pushes a button...maybe. A metallic click sounds and a metal table and chairs for humans pop up from the tabletop. I turn to Optimus. "I guess you pushed a button or something?"

I place my tray on the human sized table just as two mechs come running into the dining room, panting like dogs.

I give them my friendliest smile. "Hi!"

The mechs stare at me. One of them is red and the other one is yellow.

I recognize them immediately and my heart skips a beat. My mouth drops open and the corners of my mouth turn up into a delighted smile. "No way!"


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Okay. I am sure that a few of you were waiting or this chapter...but I have finally edited, reedited and reedited it a hundred times over so that it's hopefully somewhat close to perfection for you all. :D**

 **But...I also want to say... I am so, so, so sorry that I didn't update sooner! D: I hope that you guys will enjoy it! If there is a way that I can make it up to you all...let me know and I will try my best to make it up. I promise!**

 **.char: The Autobots look like they're from different universes. For example, Bumblebee, Ratchet, and Bulkhead look like they are from TFP. Iron Hide looks like he is from the movie verse. And the rest...I honestly don't remember the rest. XD Sorry that I couldn't be much help.**

 **Don't judge me I'm a Fangirl: Oh...we'll see. ;)**

 **The Silvernote: All in good time, my dear reader. :)**

 **Now...for the moment I am sure you have been waiting for...that chapter! Enjoy!**

* * *

"I told you we should've stayed, Sunny!" The red one yells at his twin.

Sunstreaker's optics roll in a circle in annoyance. "Stop calling me that, Sides."

"It's the twins!" I shout and sort of scream. "Sunstreaker and Sideswipe!" I am so, so, sososososososo happy/excited/ pumped to see the twins. I just hope that they're like the TV show.

I cover my mouth to keep a delighted fangirl scream from escaping my lips. But it comes out past my hands. I jump up and down on the oversized table.

"Okay, Sideswipe, stop flirting." Optimus scolds the jokester.

I stand frozen in shock. Sideswipe was flirting?!

"Me?" Sideswipe asks in mock offense. "Flirt? NEVER!"

I raise an eyebrow and place my hands on my hips. "Oh, yeah, right, whatever," I say smiling. They are just like the twins on the show…I think. I haven't seen the G1 cartoon in forever.

"I don't think that you have any room to talk…um…" Sideswipe frowns. "I'm sorry but…I don't think we know your name."

"Oh, right." I clear my throat. "I'm Avery, but my friends call me DJ, or just Avery." I wink at the "friends" part.

"I don't think you have any room to talk, Avery!" Sideswipe finishes. "Aren't you a sassy human," He says in a joking manner.

I stare at him in mock surprise. " _Me_? Sassy?" I smirk. "NEVER!" I am being very sarcastic. I am actually surprised that he was flirting with me. And a boy at that. And an Autobot. I never thought that a boy would flirt with me.

Weird.

A sensation starts to build up in my stomach. I am starting to get hungry.

Optimus chuckles.

Sideswipe laughs. "That's a good one, DJ."

Sunstreaker shakes his head in a way that says, why am I even here?

I curtsy. "Thank you. I'm very sorry, but do you mind if I eat something? " I gesture to my tray. "I don't want to seem rude or anything."

Sideswipe shakes his helm. "Not a bit."

"Thank you." I sit down in my chair and start to eat my food. When I get to my yogurt, I don't know what I do , I open it in the wrong way, because it explodes and I get yogurt all over my face; in my hair, on my cheeks, even on my eyelids and shirt. I lick some of the yogurt off my lips. "Lovely." I am a little ticked at myself. I take a very deep breath and put the container down forcefully. It makes a loud thunk.I smile and giggle. It is kinda funny that the container exploded in my face.

I see Sunstreaker turn around with a servo over his mouth. His shoulders start moving up and down.

I cock my head. Is he…laughing?

Optimus laughs. "Again with the exploding food, Avery?" He hands me the same napkin that I use to wipe the orange juice from my previous episode with my orange and trying to peel it.

I sigh. "Okay…who rigged the yogurt?"

"Are you sure it isn't showing its love?" Sideswipe asks.

I nod. "Yeah. I'm pretty sure it was rigged." I'm starting to get annoyed with the food. But the annoyance disappears when Optimus and Sideswipe start laughing. But it's strange that the whole contents exploded.

I wipe my face off with the napkin. "Looks like I'm going to have to take another shower to get all of this Greek yogurt off me." I get most of the yogurt out of my hair and finish eating my breakfast.

I stack my dirty dishes on the tray. "Hey, Optimus? There's a question I've been wanting to ask you."

"Ask away, DJ." Optimus says with a smile.

"Can I paint my room?"

"That was one of the reasons why we didn't do much with your room. We weren't sure what you would like, so we left it the way it was," Optimus says with a smile.

"So…um…where can I find some paints?"

"That's where we come in." Sideswipe points to both himself and his twin. "Well, mostly him. He has plenty of choices to choose from."

"I can give you a few suggestions," Sideswipe interjects.

"Let me guess," I say, "a barfy looking mixture of brown and green, and pukey yellow?"

Sunstreaker stares at me in horror.

"What kind of colors are those?" Optimus asks.

"The kind you don't want in your room or anywhere else, except for maybe in paintings for shading."

Sunstreaker stares at me in surprise. When he notices me looking at him, he scowls.

I frown at him. "Rude," I mumble. What's his problem?

"Oh, great," Sideswipe rolls his optics, "another artist."

I look at the tabletop. I don't like the tone Sideswipe used. I think about something that I learn about painting and drawing. "You know, some people say that what you draw or paint is a mirror to your heart. It's a way to discover what's in your heart. There's nothing wrong with being an artist, is there?"

Sunstreaker looks at me with a very puzzled expression, which is puzzling for me. "What?" I ask. "Did I say something wrong?"

Sunstreaker shakes his head.

Sunstreaker sure is confusing.

I look at Optimus. He is staring at me with a thoughtful glance. Almost like he is analyzing me.

"Optimus? Is something wrong?" I ask.

Optimus snaps out of his thoughtful look. "N-no. Everything it alright."


	12. Chapter 12

**I could not wait to post this chapter! I have a few more that are waiting to be edited and then published to the world! But...sadly, that may take a while.**

 **Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this chapter! :D**

* * *

 **Bee's POV**

When I wake up, I feel so much better and refreshed. Usually, I wake up feeling groggy and grouchy, but not today.

I walk to Avery's room to get her up. She must've be tired after everything that happened to her in one night. Finding out that her parents aren't actually her parents, then being taken away to a strange new place, and now living with strangers.

I'm happy that she came to live with us, but I feel bad that so much happened to her in such a short time.

I open the door to her room. Instead of Avery's sleeping form, which I thought I would find, I see her bed empty and neatly made and dotted with her minis.

I look around, hoping to find her. I walk out and close the door. Panic starts to build up in me. She couldn't have gotten far.

Could she?

I run all around the base looking for her. She has to be here somewhere.

After a while, I run back to her room. The Minis are talking and acting as if nothing in the world could be wrong.

"Everyone," I shout, "have you seen her?"

"Who?" The mini Bee asks.

"AVERY!" How can they be so calm when Avery's missing?

"Avery's probably hanin' with the other Bots, Bee, chillax." Jazz moves his hands in a downward motion.

The small Jazz's optimism isn't isn't helping me, or the situation, whatsoever. I can't understand how they can act so carefree when Avery, _my_ charge, is somewhere where she can get hurt. Especially around Iron Hide.

"But I looked everywhere for her," I reply in a panicky voice.

"Bumblebee, settle down," The small version of me orders me.

It's sort of weird for me to be ordered around by a small bot, especially when it's one that's modeled after me.

"Avery would never, under any circumstances, leave the base unsupervised. She should be in the base with one of the Autobots; and Bee's right, calm down," Mini Optimus tells me.

I am having a hard time figuring which is weirder: taking orders from a mini Optimus or a mini me. I decide that taking orders from a mini me is weirder.

"Avery is one the most intelligentest peoples I know." Blight interjects his tone carefree. "She ka-knows going out of the base is no the goodest thing for she."

"Well, we sure _ka-know_ who no not smart," Sunstreaker says, giving Blight a sideways glance.

Everyone, except for me, laughs at that. I have the urge to, but there is is a more urgent matter…Avery.

"Avery is very intelligent." Jazz smiles to himself.

"It appears that your manners and grammar have improved, Jazz." The little Bee comments.

"Avery's been a good influence." Jazz smiles proudly.

"I remember her having an argument with that girl," Sunstreaker says thoughtfully. "What is her name?" He asks his twin.

"You mean the one that treated our DJ like trash?" the little Bee asks.

Sunstreaker nods grimly.

The little Bee's face grows dark.

"Josie," Sideswipe replies. "I remember DJ comparing her to a mean character in the book _Anne of Green Gables_ , Josie Pie."

"Yeah, that sounds right," Sunstreaker agrees. "She and Josie once had an argument over something about 'ain't' not being a word."

"Yeah, that was back in that house the…sixth time she moved," Jazz looks up, "before she left, I thought Avery was going to explode."

"I actually can't believe she put up with her…oh, what would you call her attitude?" Soundwave asks.

Jazz shook shakes his helm. "You mean the, I'm-the-only-friend-that-you-have-in-the-world-and-you're-not-allowed-to-hang-out-with-anyone-but-me attitude?"

Soundwave nods. "That seems correct."

"I know she trouble she walked into room." Blight's face is very dark. "I wish Avery known too. I likes her less Avery told us about incident with cousin and dad."

 _Incident? What incident?_

"And the time she was alone, and said that she never had anyone hate her before?" Jazz asked.

My optics widen. _How can somebody hate Avery? She's the sweetest human I ever met. Maybe one of them._

"I remember DJ talking about it to herself," Mini Bee recalls. "She said she laughed when Josie said she hated her. Avery also said that she must have been expecting it without even realizing it. But, I'm just glad she and her family moved, and to Alaska. That's one excuse of not seeing her; you can't argue with. And Avery doesn't want anything to do with that Josie." Bee shakes his head. "Besides, Avery is too kind and sweet to deserve that kind of behavior."

"Everyone," Optimus's tone is very commanding."Need I remind you that what happened with Avery and Josie is in the past. Avery moved to Alaska and is no longer in contact with Josie. There isn't a reason to brood over the past."

Jazz nods and beams at Optimus. "Right ho, Prime. Our lil' lady is gonna be alright. Also, Bumblebee," he looks at Bee with a friendly smirk, "how do you know that Avery is too sweet and kind?"

Bee shrugs. "I guess I know Avery well."

"It's no secret that Avery favors Bumblebee above everyone else," Soundwave says.

"But Avery loves us all equally, right?" Sideswipe asks.

"Yeah," Sunstreaker agrees. "But, you remember when she watched the last few episodes of Prime and Bumblebee died?"

Everyone nods.

"Avery hardly ever cries when a character dies, and she bawled like a baby when you died, Bee." Sunstreaker elbows Bee.

"Yeah? So what? She cried when she saw that old cartoon movie when Optimus died," Bee points out.

The twins shrug.

I sigh. This is not going anywhere "If any of you guys see her, give me a call."

I turn around and head out of the room. _Please be okay, Avery. Please._

I run for many minutes, searching for her all over the place.

No matter where I look…

No matter where I go…

Avery is nowhere to be found.


	13. Chapter 13

I take a super quick shower to get rid of all the Greek Yogurt in my hair. I even change my shirt for one that _isn't_ splattered in Greek Yogurt. I choose a grey short-sleeved Under Armour™ shirt that says in the front: "The worst casualty is being forgotten." On the back is the Wounded Warrior Project logo.

I didn't really bother to dry my hair or wring out the water, even though it is soaking the back on my shirt.

The twins are waiting for me outside my door. I am taken by surprise when Sideswipe bends down, scoops me up, and places me on his shoulder. As he does that, I smile and say, "Whoa!"

He laughs. "Are you ready to redecorate your room, DJ?"

"Yes!" I reply. This certainly is the best day ever. I wonder if I get to meet some of the other Bots today, like maybe I'll meet Red Alert or Hot Shot, if they are real—no, Wheeljack. That would be awesome if I meet Wheeljack.

Sideswipe takes a left on the south end of the hall and then takes a left. The third door on the right happens to be their room.

The first thing I see is a Cybertronian easel with a canvas. Sunstreaker walks over to it and picks up a Cybertronian sized artist's palate, dotted with splotches of different colors, and a paintbrush. He dips his paintbrush into a deep blue color and dabs it onto the canvas.

"What are you painting?" I ask.

Sunstreaker stares at me, and looks at his brother as if he said something. I didn't hear Sideswipe say anything. Sunstreaker's blank stare instantly turns into a dirty glare. It intensifies when his gaze is directed back at me. I come to the conclusion that Sideswipe sent his twin a message through the twin bond.

A twin bond is a link between twins. Many sites that I have read said that twins have split sparks and they may or may not have this telepathic ability. I don't know much about it.

"Fine," Sunstreaker mutters under his breath.

Sideswipe brings me to Sunstreaker's side so I can get a better look.

I draw in a breath at the picture. It's an image of a galaxy, filled with pinks, blues, white, and a light yellow. The mixture of the colors and the way they are mixed make it look... real. It seems like you can just stick your hand into the picture and it will transport you there.

Sunstreaker stares at me, as if expecting me to say something horrible about his painting.

I stammer, "I-I don't know what to say. Th-this is a masterpiece. Is this from your imagination, or is it real?"

"My imagination."

"Th-the way you mixed the colors together on canvas…" I shake my head. "It's unbelievable."

I mean every word. I instantly wish that I could have his talent for painting. I wonder, would he be interested in teaching me?

I chuckle quietly. _There's no way that Sunstreaker would be willing to teach me. He doesn't like humans and there's no way that he'll like me._

"So, Avery," Sideswipe begins as he sits on his berth. "Whatcha planning to paint your room?"Sides lowers his servo to his knee. I step off of his hand. I am still shocked at seeing the painting. I take a few steps closer to the edge of Sideswipe's knee in hope to get a better view of Sunstreaker's painting.

Even though I hear Side's voice, by brain doesn't register what he is saying, I still gape at the painting. "That should go in a museum."

"Yo, Avery," Sideswipe says. "Knock, knock, anybody home?"

I shrug. "Yes. Somebody is home. And no, I haven't the slightest idea."

"Seriously?" Sunstreaker asks with an optic ridge raised.

I nod. "Yep."

"Well, any ideas?" Sideswipe asks.

"I was thinking maybe something bright and cheery, like a yellow or turquoise or something like that. But I was also thinking about adding in a wall painting of some sort."

"Really?" Sunstreaker seems interested now. His attention is no longer on his canvas and he is staring at me in childlike wonder. Then it changes to confusion when he studies me. "A human?" He asks quietly.

I cross my arms and glare at Sunstreaker in annoyance. Did he just imply that just because I'm a human means that I don't have any artistic abilities?

I nod. "I don't really have ideas, but I would like some."

I sit down on Sideswipe's knee. I was getting tired of standing and my legs were seemingly complaining about the prolonged lack of movement.

"Okay," Sideswipe says with a smile. "I'm drawing a blank."

Sunstreaker smirks evilly at his brother. "That is so like you, Sides. You have no creativity in that small processor of yours".

Sideswipe looks like he is about to explode. His lips are pressed into a hard line and he looks ready to lunge at Sunstreaker. He takes a quick glance at me on his knee and he relaxes. I bang my head against my knees. "Mind blank." I say in a robot like robot-like voice. "Need inspiration."

"Well, how about you pick out some colors and we head to your room to see if we come up with ideas," Sideswipe suggests.

"Okie dokie," I reply with a smile.

I stand up on Side's knee and face the red mech. A metal hand wraps around my torso and lifts me up. I glance behind me to see that the servo belongs to Sunstreaker. He gently places me on his left shoulder.

"Wow!" I say, surprised. "Two escorts in one day. I think I may be the luckiest girl in the universe."

Sideswipe laughs. "Sunny, you and Avery look so cute together!"

I feel the blood rush to my face. Was his teasing really necessary?

They take me to my room. Sunstreaker sets me down on the floor. From the ground level, I have to look all the way up in order to see their faceplates. That is when an idea hits me. "Hey, guys."

The twins look down at me.

"I have an idea. Do you think that there's a way to put a balcony or a catwalk on the walls?" I look around the walls of my room. It was pretty sad to look at the empty grey walls of my bed chamber.

Sunstreaker tilts his head. "Why?"

"Well, you see, I have to look up in order to meet your eyes," I explain. "I thought that if we somehow built a balcony or living area on the wall, it might be easier to talk to you eye to optic; and you guys wouldn't step on me or my things as easily."

The twins nod in elated approval. Well, Sideswipe does.

"Not a bad idea." Sideswipe says. "How about we bring this up to Optimus and see what he thinks? I've been wanting to ask this: can I be your guardian?"

"The first sounds great." I reply happily. "The latter however, I'm already spoken for."

Sideswipe looks like he is about to explode. He turns to his brother. "Sunny, you good for nothing…" Instead of finishing his sentence, he lunges at his brother.

I quickly get out of the room and head for the twins' room to get some paints cans. _I hope that by the time I get back their fight will be over. If not, I'll throw the cans at them. Maybe I can invite Bee in on our project._

I find two paint cans in a corner of the room and head back for mine.

On the way back, Bee runs past me in a panic. He doesn't seem to notice me with my paint cans and dripping wet hair. "Huh," I say to myself, "He must be late for something. I wonder what it is."


End file.
